tammylorna...

There is sunshine in my soul today!

2012-01-01T08:19:00.000+10:00

"I have always been delighted at the prospect of a new day, a fresh try, one more start, with perhaps a bit of magic waiting somewhere behind the morning..."

I have a wonderful feeling about 2012, and am so excited to welcome him in. As you all know, I turned thirty last year, and now that that ordeal is finally over (lol!), I'm actually feeling quite empowered about the whole thing. I've heard from many people that the thirties are when life really starts, when the turmoil and 'figure-it-out-ishness' of our twenties is finally over, and we can start to really enjoy yourselves. As I've thought about it over the last couple of months, I've become more and more excited. There are so many things I want to do and see, but mostly, there is so much that I'd like to become and 2012 really does feel like a year open, unspoiled and full of possibilities that I really can become that person I've finally figured out I'd like to be.

So happy first of January everyone - could Heavenly Father have sent us a more beautiful morning here in Brisbane Australia?! Not a cloud in the sky, such a freshness in the air, and that gentle morning breeze so lovingly encouraging us to get up and embrace a new year.

xo Tammy

EFY Counsellor Trainings

2011-12-22T10:11:00.000+10:00

Thought those of you who've lost me to EFY over recent months might enjoy seeing this photo montage of our three big full-day counsellor trainings :)

xo Tammy

I have no life right now...

2011-12-02T06:56:00.001+10:00

THAT'S why I haven't been blogging.
Or emailing friends.
Or checking other people's blogs.
Or replying to friend's emails.
Or sleeping....

Very happy to be doing the stuff I'm so busy with at the moment - it's important - but am really excited to be done with it all on January 14th too. It's okay to feel that way, right?! :)

xo Tammy

Dear Lauren...

2011-11-11T15:07:00.000+10:00

I dedicate this new post to you.

Ta-da!

xo Tammy

Wonderful - Day 9: We thank Thee Oh God for a prophet

2011-10-10T22:51:00.006+10:00

Today Mum and I drove home from Uncle Dougs house. It took several hours, but I really enjoyed it. The company was wonderful (I so much enjoy spending time with Mum, talking about anything and everything - she's sort of my rock here on earth, my mum), and the weather was beautiful, and the scenery for most of the trip was just soo beautiful (we loved whatever river it was that the road followed along for much of the way. Bridges, farmlands, sun dancing on the water, tall gum tree forests. Mum and I kept pointing things out to each other). And for most of the drive - since it was Sunday, and since in Australia it was conference weekend - we listened to General Conference. I love General Conference, and I always look forward to it! And this October conference was no exception. I loved Elder Scott's Talk on the Power of Scriptures, and Sister Thompson's talk on Personal Revelation and Testimony; Presiden't Packers talk, Counsel to Youth was excellent, and Elder Cook's talk It's Better to Look Up has become a favourite (I've decided to adopt his 'Look up, Step up, Cheer up' as my motto. I'm pretty good at the 'step up' bit, but often fall short with the other two, so I appreciated that counsel). I loved Elder Ballard's talk The Importance of a Name, and if someone doesnt' stop me soon, I'll probably go on to list every talk, lol!

My favourite though, really, was President Monson's talk in the Sunday morning Session, Stand in Holy Places. What a wonderful message he gave, and with such love and wisdom. I tell you, there is no doubt in my mind that he is a prophet of God. And there is no doubt in my mind that I am incredibly blessed to live in a time where I can here prophets speak so reguarly, and with such inspired and diving messages. It all rests with me now, to take their messages and find was to apply them and build on them. I have been so blessed to hear and see so many of our apostles and prophets over the years (sometimes in person, and often via satelite) and I count each and every one of these experiences as wonderful highlights of the last 30 years.

Did you have a favourite talk from conference?!!

xo Tammy

Wonderful - Day 8: heritage

2011-10-08T22:04:00.004+10:00

Tonight's post comes from the iPhone, so it will be short! Lol :) but I've spent the afternoon with uncle Doug, and it has been such a pleasure to hear and learn more about his life. I've especially enjoyed hearing about his mother (my great grandmother) Kathleen Mary Fitzgerald (how's that for a good solid Irish name? Lol). She had a very difficult life in many ways, and with a lot of hardship, but she sounds like a very kind and gentle woman with a sense if fun. Doug says she was very popular, because she was an accomplished pianist with a beautiful singing voice.

One story was about a time she was riding the train from Adelaide to Darwin, and for some reason (he can't remember if the train broke down or if it was flooded up ahead), but either way, the train (and everyone on it) was stuck there in the middle of Australia, for two days! Anyway, it was soon discovered that she could play and sing, AND it turned out that there was a piano in one of the luggage cars, so a bunch of fellows on the train unloaded the piano out onto the ground right there by the railway track and the train (in the middle of no where!), and as Doug puts it, she 'practically played for two days and two nights straight, while everyone enjoyed a non-stop singalong :)

She played everything, from all the great wartime classics (like 'it's a long way to tipararee'), well loved 'pop songs' of the era, like 'somewhere over the rainbow' and of course all the old Irish songs (like 'take me home Kathleen').

How wonderful that they had her and a piano onboard to keep the all so cheerful and entertained. And how wonderful for me to be part of such a wonderful family, with such a lovely heritage. Hearing stories like these aren't just fun because they're great stories, but they're also fun because they help me realize that I'm part of a chain of wonderful people. I start to understand more about who I am, and why I am the way I am. And it makes me want to live the kind of life that future generations could draw strength from.

So that's pretty cool, really ;)

xo Tammy

Wonderful - Day 7: Today, today!

2011-10-07T21:55:00.004+10:00

Tonight's post is coming to you from Ballina. That's right, Ballina. Turns out that mum's weekend suddenly freed up yesterday, and since we've been planning to take a road trip to see (great)Uncle Doug for almost a year now, she proposed an impromptu weekend trip. With so much going on, I unfortunately couldn't take any time off work, but at 5:30pm this afternoon, I shut the computer, threw some things in an overnight bag and was out the door by 5:45pm to head over and pick up mum. (We left Dad trying not to look tooo excited about the prospect of watching his football DVDs on the couch all night :)

It's an 8 hour drive to Kempsey in NSW where Doug and Ella live, so we did 2 hours tonight (hence the stop in Ballina), then we'll do six hours tomorrow morning and spend the afternoon/evening and Sunday morning with Doug and Ella (we're hoping to transcribe a bunch of the fabulous life stories that Doug has bursting out of his head), and then we'll drive home Sunday afternoon/evening. It's a lot of driving! But Dad kindly burned all of the conference sessions onto CD for us (old school, I know, but I can't figure out how to get it onto my iphone), and we're really looking forward to listening to them.

So here's what's wonderful about my life for today's post: How amazing is it that we get to live in a time and place where we can MAKE a round trip journey like this in just a weekend? I know people moan about crime, and disease and global warming. But I love living 'now' (even if I do kind of yearn for the music and fashions of the 30s and 40s, which were awesome. Though with the depresssion and the world war, I guess it's not really a fair trade. But I digress....)

I'm grateful for cars, airconditioning, medicines and doctors who know more than medievel doctors did (I read a book recently about life in London in the 1,400s - and if I'd gotten sick back then, I think I'd rather have died in my freezing little mud hut than risk the 'skill' of a doctor with very strange notions!). I'm grateful for computures, and the internet, and google and wikipedia. I love Emails and blogs. I love airoplains and movies and phones, and music that can be enjoyed even when it's not being performed live. I love that my iphone always knows exactly where I am, and that the flashing blue dot can direct me to wherever I need to go (you rock, iphone!). I think it's wonderful that we books are everywhere, and that in today's world you can instantly know about things that are happening on the other side of the world. I love that within a day or two I could be on the otherside of the world!

You know, if I had no financial committments and a bundle of money sitting the bank...

But still!

xo Tammy

Wonderful - Day 6: "I haven't lost my mind; I have a tape back-up somewhere!"

2011-10-06T22:48:00.009+10:00

I actually don't know exactly what I'll blog about tonight... Oh dear. I should probably have figured this out before I sat down to write! Today was exhausting, and I'm absolutely brain-dead. I was at work, thinking, typing, talking, phoning, calculating, directing, and emailing at a frenetic warp-speed pace from 6:30am this morning until 9:00pm this evening, and I'm totally and completely spent. At least all of todays' huge deadlines have been met, which (if I do say so myself) is pretty impressive really! If you'd all just known how much there was to do! Mind you, tomorrow comes with it's own huge set of deadlines. So I'm thinking of just being in denial and refusing to go to bed tonight so that it won't be tomorrow. And on the upside, I'm so behind on EFY stuff at the moment, so staying up all night might work really well - think of the things I could get done!

Anyway, back to the task at hand: today is NOT going to be the day you hear about how 'wonderful' by job is! lol :)

On the way home, I was trying to think about something wonderful to blog about, but I really couldn't come up with anything! There's plenty of wonderful things IN my life, I just couldn't focus on anything long enough to decide on something.

Finally I thought - "Grrr! I can't even think! My brain is all used up!" Which led me to think "hmmm... My brain. I'm grateful I have a good brain that usually works.... maybe I'll blog about that... it's ironic though, to blog about having a good brain when you can't think straight... yeah, but you can't think straight because you used it all up today... yeah, but lucky you had the kind of brain that was able to direct those three jobs in post production and write those 4 big proposals today! That was a mammoth effort (go me!) and you're lucky your brain was up to it!... Yeah, but now it's all deflated! Wait! Am I have a conversation with myself again?! So sad!"

When I sat down to write this post, I thought "maybe I'll just find a funny quote about brains, and then that can be my post and I won't have to think of anything to write!' (which I thought was a bit of a brainwave). Of course then I started coming across quotes about insanity, and they sounded more fitting really. Here are some of my favourites:

“Of all the things I've lost, I miss my mind the most”
-Mark Twain

Insanity is often the logic of an accurate mind overtasked. ~Oliver W. Holmes, Sr

The statistics on sanity are that one out of every four Americans is suffering from some form of mental illness. Think of your three best friends. If they're okay, then it's you. ~Rita Mae Brown

Might we not say to the confused voices which sometimes arise from the depths of our being: "Ladies, be so kind as to speak only four at a time?" ~Madame Swetchine

Classic, right?! Also loved the one I put in title of this post... which is extra funny if you were at work with me today! Sadly, none of you were. (new low: Not only am I talking to myself, but now I'm also having in-jokes with myself!)

Anyway! In summary: I love that I have a brain that usually works. I love to use it to think about things, and write about things, and read and talk about things. And I'm grateful that it's only this useless when the occassional crazy-busy-five-projects-due-at-once day mixes with the not-so-occassional hormonally-blamed-lack-of-abilty-to-think-straight day!

I'm really glad those days don't collide too often :)

xo Tammy

Wonderful - Day 5: Aunty Tammy

2011-10-05T20:50:00.008+10:00

Can't even begin to tell you how much I love these four (almost five) wonderful wonderful children. Being an Aunty is one of the absolute joys of my life :)

“Only an Aunt can give hugs like a mother, can keep secrets like a sister, and share love like a friend.”
~ Spanish Proverb

Wonderful - Day 4: At home or abroad

2011-10-04T20:01:00.008+10:00

I've spent 9 years of my life living overseas. Four of them were spent in Papua New Guinea as a little girl, and five were spent in the United States as a BYU student. I probably have more vivid memories of my time in the USA than of my time in PNG (it was so long ago now!), but I have treasured memories from both periods and I'm so grateful for those experiences. They taught me a lot and gave me a greater understanding of the world we live in. I'm very aware, for example, that I live a life of unimaginable luxury compared to so many other people on earth. And having seen first hand as a little girl what everyday life is like in a third world country, I've always felt a deep since of gratitude for what I have and a desire to share where I can.

I've also loved the traveling I've been so lucky to do, and the wonderful things I've seen. But - and this will sound cliched - no matter how far or how wide I roam, I still love to call Australia home. I'm more grateful than I can possibly express to have been born here. They call it the lucky country - and I'd have to agree. The older I get, the more I start to realize just how much it means to me to be an Aussie.

I really love the Dorothea Mackeller poem 'My Country', it feels familiar, and as I read it I can almost smell, taste, hear and feel the landscapes. It stirs my blood and leaves me standing just a little taller :) These are a couple of my favourite stanzas:

I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of ragged mountain ranges,
Of droughts and flooding rains.
I love her far horizons,
I love her jewel-sea,
Her beauty and her terror –
The wide brown land for me!

A stark white ring-barked forest
All tragic to the moon,
The sapphire-misted mountains,
The hot gold hush of noon.
Green tangle of the brushes,
Where lithe lianas coil,
And orchids deck the tree-tops
And ferns the warm dark soil.

Core of my heart, my country!
Land of the Rainbow Gold,
For flood and fire and famine,
She pays us back threefold -
Over the thirsty paddocks,
Watch, after many days,
The filmy veil of greenness
That thickens as we gaze.

An opal-hearted country,
A wilful, lavish land -
All you who have not loved her,
You will not understand -
Though earth holds many splendours,
Wherever I may die,
I know to what brown country
My homing thoughts will fly.

xo Tammy

Wonderful - Day 3: If it's between laughing and crying, you might as well laugh

2011-10-03T19:22:00.014+10:00

In about September/October of grade eleven, we had the semi-formal. When you're IN grade eleven, that's a really big deal. It's a lot like the formal (aka Prom) that you have in grade 12, but just a tiny bit less fancy: basically, your parents drive you, rather then hiring limos to drive you. Otherwise it's pretty much the same as the formal.

I remember being excited about the semi (unlike my formal - but that's another story!), and mum sewed me the most beautiful outfit. It was a long, full, gorgeous black skirt, and a really pretty midnight blue, fitted silk top. And depending where you were standing in the light and how you moved, the colours in the top all seemed to change. I really liked it :)

I'm pretty sure I was sewn into it on the night though - because we were running really late! (I'll interject here quickly and assure Mum that I know it was my fault we were running so late, since I never made decisions about what I wanted until the very last minute, lol!). I seem to remember that my date was actually in the living room waiting, and mum and I were rushing frantically around in her bathroom to finish my hair and makeup. I had really long (gorgeous, full, dark, not-full-of-grey) hair back then, and we'd decided to wear it out and curly with a dimonti slide I think. Once that was done, it was just my makeup that needed doing.

I don't remember clearly exactly how what happened next happened, but one minute we were shaking the liquid foundation bottle (with a finger over the top), and the next minute, I inexplicably had liquid foundation ALL OVER ME! All over my hair, sitting perfectly over both shoulders, and all over the front of my beautiful midnight blue top. In my memory, at that moment, time just hung for a moment, as we both just stared in horror at my reflection in the mirror. Our eyes widened, our eyebrows rose, and our jaws dropped.

And then, mum suddenly started laughing. And I don't just mean a giggle. It was one of those 'I have never laughed so hard in my life' kind of laughs. I started shreiking and wailing and panicking and getting into hysterics (naturally!), and that just seemed to make mum laugh even harder. I actually remember mum dropping to the floor of the bathroom and sitting there, holding her sides as she laughed! And everytime she'd look up at me, a whole new round of laughter would start up.

Of course in spite of myself, I started laughing a little bit too (not too much though - I mean, I was covered in foundation!). And as Mum finally finished laughing and stood up to 'fix things', I remember her explaining to me (as I demanded to know WHAT could possibly be so funny!) that sometimes things just go so terribly wrong that there's really nothing you can do but laugh (she might not have used those exact words, but that's the gist of what I remember).

Dad was duly summoned and dispatched with a message for my date that he'd better make himself comfortable. The top had to come off, be hand washed and then 'hair drier' dried, and my hair had to be washed out as best as we could in the sink and then re-dried and curled. It took a while, but there was no other way around it.

I remember having a good time with mum that night, and that in the end, it all worked out just fine (my date may not have the same memory, but he's not the one writing this blog).

I have often thought of that night over the last several years - especially when things go terribly wrong! I'm really grateful that laughter was mum's first response. I often remember it when I find my eyes widening, my eyebrows rising, and my jaw dropping, and it's a lesson that has served me well on more occassions than I can count.

Because when it's between laughing and crying, you might as well laugh. In any event, you'll have a better time cleaning up a mess! :)

xo Tammy

Wonderful - Day 2: Testimony

2011-10-02T16:28:00.006+10:00

I read the Book of Mormon - all by myself - when I was seven years old. I suspect it may have been Mum who first planted the idea in my head, but I eagerly took the challenge on: I wanted to read the Book of Mormon before I turned eight so that I could know for myself that the church was true, and have a strong testimony before I was baptized.

What kind of kid does that?! I'm in awe, sometimes, of the strength I seem to have been born with. I certainly don't have as much of that strength these days, but as I child, I had oodles of it. By the time I was 10, I think I'd filled 8 or 9 journals (with mostly unintersting tidbits about what I'd had for breakfast, and what friends I'd played with), but I wrote without missing a day for several years because I'd learned about the Prophet Wilford Woodruff and his personal committment to recording his day in his journal before going to bed each night. I can clearly remember, around the age of 11 or 12, really carefully examining my character and my faults and setting little goals to help myself improve: "I will be kind to everyone for 30 days" or "I will do 3 acts of service every day for the next 3 weeks", writing them down on cards and ticking of my progress each day. I even set (and accomplished) a goal to read the Old and New Testiments and the Doctrine and Covenants before my 12th birthday. I loved to learn and discuss the gospel with my (patient and wonderful) parents, and I had so many amazing experiences with prayer as a little girl - I knew I had a Heavenly Father, and that He was there ready to talk, everytime I bowed my head to discuss something with Him.

Looking back, it seems a bit of a wonder that I wasn't translated! lol :)

It's hard sometimes, remembering the innocent, committed, humble and completely obedient heart that I had back then - because I'm much more crumpled,spritually slow, proud and disobedient now! But life has it's ups and downs, and I've come to understand and appreciate that. In some ways I'm worse than I was, and in other ways, I'm much better because I have greater levels of the understanding and experience that comes with 'growing up'.

Today was Fast and Testimony Sunday, and I was looking forward all morning to sacrament meeting. I was feeling hungery for the strength that comes as we listen to other people's testimonies, and it really was a wonderful meeting. Two testimonies in particular stood out: the first was a fellow who said that he never feels that he 'knows' the things that other people talk about 'knowing' in their testimonies. But he believed lots of things, and he worked hard at that becuase it made him happy, and brought him peace. I know that believing is easier for some people than it is for others, and I really admired his 'decision to believe' even though it didn't seem to be a naturally easy thing for him to do. A second fellow spoke about the fact that he has always known that God is his Father, that Jesus Christ is his Saviour, and that the church is true. He said he'd had his ups and downs, and that he often is saddened by his seeming lack of ability to actually 'do' what he 'knows', but that he nonetheless has never been able to bury, or deny, or shake off that absolute knowledge.

I realize that I'm a lot like that second fellow. I spend a lot of time feeling frustrated and angry with myself over my millions of shortcomings, because I 'know' better! But the positive flipside of that, is just how gloriously wonderful it is to 'know' better at all! There are so many wonderful spiritual gifts that Heavenly Father gives his children, and I have taken for granted (for most of my life) the gift of Testimony that I was blessed with. I remember in Seminary deciding to 'pray to know' if the Book of Mormon was true. I spent quite a bit of time at it, and was hoping and waiting for a real 'lightening bolt' experience, before I realized that the Spirit was there (in my minds eye he was actually rolling his eyes at me), trying to point out that I already absolutely knew that it was true, so the question was a tad ridiculous!

All through the stalwart righteousness of my childhood and youth, and then through the spiritually-turbulent(and often less-than-righteous) years of my twenties, I've known that I have have a Father in Heaven, and that he loves me. It's an absolute in my mind, and forms the core, really, of my understanding of the world and the way things work. I've tried to imagine what it would be like not to know that, but I can't really, because I can't even imagine a world where that might not be the case.

Others who may not have the gift of testimony will undoubtably have natural abilities in other areas that I simply don't have, and we all have the opportunity to develop whatever spiritual gifts we put our mind to, but as I look back over the last 30 years, and the things that have made my life 'wonderful', I think my testimony has to be at the very top of that list.

There is a peace and a sense of place and context to my life that I take for granted because I've never known otherwise. But it's been such a blessing to also feel that safety net hanging just under everything I do; knowning that Heavenly Father has it all under control (if I'll just listen and actually 'do' from time to time!)

Pretty wonderful, huh?!

xo Tammy

Suddenly Thirty

2011-10-01T23:48:00.004+10:00

You know that Jennifer Garner movie, where she's at her 13th birthday party one minute, but then she wakes up the next morning to find that she's suddenly 30 years old?! Well no one has recently sprinkled magic dust all over me or anything, but I still kind of feel like maybe that's what's happened to me (Mark Ruffalo has yet to show up, but don't worry, I'm keeping an eye out for him). I swear it was only yesterday that I was 20, yet suddenly here I am, face to face with my 30th birthday. Today's the 1st of October, and this is the month that will force me (pretty unwillingly) into the next decade of my life.

I have been dreading this all year. I knew it was coming (duh!), and I've been having multiple preparatory 'break-downs' over the impending doom that is the 31st of October. Practise makes perfect, and so I'm getting really good at having 'breakdowns'. They leave me feeling depressed on a good day, and panicked and terrified on the bad days (which sounds overly dramatic, but is actually kind of true, lol!). I should clarify that it's actually not the 'getting older' part of this whole thing that bothers me (I don't really mind that part at all), it's the 'reaching my 30th birthday and still not being married with kids' that is leaving me in such a mess. I don't really talk about it much, and I don't like to, because there really isn't much point, but it seems impossible to personally consider myself as anything but a complete and utter failure, not because of what others may or may not think (I'm not too bothered about that), but just because of what I think about it all. I only had one real goal in life, and that was it! So it does feel like I've failed at life. (I'm sure lots of you would say wonderful things to try and make me feel better, and swear that I'm not a failure - which is why I love you all so much :)).

But anyway, that's not the point of this post, that was just to give you some context for this next part: I've been trying to find a different way to look at this birthday thing, and a week or two ago an idea occured to me that I've finally decided to adopt. I have 31 days till 'D-Day', and I'd really (really) like to be feeling a little more positive about things. And as I've tried to be positive, I've been trying to focus more on all of the wonderful things that have happened to me over these 30 years, or the wonderful things I've learnt, or the people I've met, or the experiences I've had. Because in my head and heart, I can't deny that my life so far (depsite it's disapointments and hard times) has been absolutely wonderful. I have so much more than so many people in this world could ever hope to have, and I certianly have more than I could ever hope to deserve. So as a tiny show of gratitude to my Heavenly Father, I'd really like to try and focus on everything I've been blessed with - because the list is so long.

Each day this month, I'm going to post about something wondeful from my life's experiences so far. I'm hesitant to make that kind of commitment because I'm extremely time-poor at the moment (so some of the posts might be really short, lol!), but I actually think it's too important not to do. All this dread and negative focus is having such a bad effect on me, and I don't want to get all bitter just because I'm in my thirties - lol! I'm also really hoping that if I start to feel all grateful and positive, than I'll stop feeling so completely frozen by panic, and will be able to start breathing normally again :)

Please feel free to read along and comment (or even to add 'wonderful' things I'm missing, lol!), and hopefully you'll notice a bit of a more positive, happy, less-tear-inclined Tammy by the end of the month :)

xoxo Tammy

Anyone else excited for General Conference?

2011-09-29T17:01:00.004+10:00

Pulled this from Brecken's blog... it's from the Relief Societ Broadcast... :)

xo Tammy

A weekend in Review... (via the twins)

2011-09-12T18:07:00.002+10:00

Okay, so you may have noticed that I pretty much never write on my blog anymore! I was thinking about that today (and feeling guilty), and I realized that this might be because I've replaced any blog writting time I have with 'letters to the twins on their mission' writing time.

Anyway, here's a 'copy-and-paste' of a long letter I sent the twins recently. Hopefully this longwinded type-as-I-thought-without-proofreading letter will be of interest to those of you who have been asking me to write on my blog again, lol!

___________________________________________________

Morning Elders!

(I say 'morning' because where I am, it is early in the morning. Well, mum would probably say it was practically the afternoon and I'd wasted half of the day in bed, but I've been very busy this week and was kind of tired this morning. Alarm went off at 6:30, and I changed it to 7:30 so I could sleep a little longer :) I've given myself until 8am to write to my fabuous missionary brothers, and then I'm going to jump in the shower and try to be ready by 9am when Jonny is coming over to help me with putting together some IKEA furniture (can't believe you guys up and went to Japan when I was very likely going to need help with IKEA furniture during the 2 years you went! lol!). Anyway, the news of the week is that I no longer live in a rat/smelling/fly-plague house. Awwwwweeeeesssssoooommmmmeeeee! I know in my last letter I probably spent half my email describing all the things I didn't like about the new house (I was feeling kind of pessimistic about the whole thing, truth be told), BUT it turns out that I really kind of love the new house. Yes, the floor coverings are still pretty bad, and it IS an old house with light brown walls, BUT, it's pretty awesome too. It's so big, and it's exciting to have a change and organize everything again (exhausting, but exciting). You guys will be able to move every time you have transfers - that'll be fun! And just think, you won't even have to spend 2 weeks arguing with your old real estate agents and looking for a new rental property and signing a new lease, etc etc. Which is WAY more convenient than the non-mission way of moving house. Trust me!

So my week: Well. Monday and Tuesday, I decided to be in denial and just living life as normal. My roommates were all packing their rooms etc., but I liked my old room and didn't want to spend two days with boxes everywhere, so I just kind of did what I normally do... Wednesday I obviously got up REALLY early and started frantically packing stuff (it was the EKKA holiday and our day to move). My genius invention of this particularly move is that I bought a 300m role of glad-wrap and wrapped EVERYTHING up. People mocked me at first, but by the end of the day, everyone was saying things like 'huh. I hadn't seen the glad-wrap method before, but I'll definitely use it next time' (they called it a 'method' and everything - totally made my genius invention legit!). It basically meant that I didn't have to put as much stuff in boxes. My laundry basket for example (which has an open top): I just glad wrapped it, and put it with everything to be loaded in the truck. My blue drawers? Just pulled each draw out, put glad wrap around it, put it back in the chest, and then glad wrapped the entire chest so the pain wouldn't chip if things got knocked (James mocked me about that one, but go ahead James. And please notice that NONE of my furniture got chipped, though others weren't so lucky). My desk? Well, the draw wouldn't come out (James says IKEA designed it that way, I think maybe James and Oliver just built it that way), so I just glad wrapped the whole desk so the draw stayed in, and the cupboards didn't open. You guys are lucky to be related to someone as smart as me, obviously.

I did have to rush over to work at 8:30am to let a freelance editor into the building, but that only took about half an hour. At 10am, James and Jonny came over (with wives and children in tow) to help me, and a whole bunch of YSA started turning up too. I had worried the day before that we wouldn't have enough help, and so had asked the girls to invite as many YSA guys as possible. Well, we had about 15 turn up, so we had MORE than enough help. Mum and Dad would have liked to help too of course, but Dad had to work and Mum wasn't well, but that was okay because like I said, we had HEAPS of help. The plan was for everyone to help us move everything downstairs by noon, when the guy whose Dad owns a massive bread truck would turn up to help us move everything. But we pretty much had everything downstairs by 11am, so then everyone just stood around and waiting until 12:30pm when the truck turned up. (okay, so the packing in my room ran a little late since I hadn't started till that morning. But Abby did a fabulous job of putting garbage bags around my clothes and tying the coat hangers together with twine, and everyone was such a help that I was finished WAY before the truck arrived. (Our family is pretty fabulous!).

They ended up having to make two loads with the moving (aka bread) truck, partly because the truck was half full of bread for Thursday's delivery, and Brad didn't want to stack stuff too high in case it fell onto the bread (I of course, didn't want them to stack things too high in case it fell, full stop). It was a massive job for the guys to then get everything upstairs into the house, because there's a staircase at the front side of the house (outside) leading up to the big front veranda and then the front door. At one point, they put a rug over the railing on the veranda at the front of the house (above the driveway), and would pass big pieces of furniture up and over the railing. It was pretty scary to watch (very scary), but much easier. Bookcases and tables and mattresses all went up into the house that way! Jonny and the rest of the YSA were all very helpful of course, and then there was James, who is pretty much a machine with this kind of stuff. The day before, when I'd been worried that we wouldn't have much help and because Jonny's knee is still a bit bad (he fractured a bone in it a while back), I didn't know if there'd be anyone to help James move all the furniture. He was all 'I don't need anyone else, I can just do it myself if I have to'
Tammy - um, no, you'll need someone else to help with the other end of heavy furniture.
James - I won't.
Tammy - You will.
James - Nah, Tammy (laughing), I'll be fine.
Tammy - okay, what about the fridge? huh?!
James - 2 door? or 1 door?
Tammy - 1 door....
James - Yeah, I'll be fine. I've done that before.
Tammy - .... You'll carry our fridge down the stairs to the truck, all by yourself.
James - yeah (and then he gave me a look like I was the weird one)
Tammy - *** Collapsing into laughter ***
MORAL OF THE STORY - James really does think he's the man. But then when it comes to moving stuff, I have to admit that he kind of is. Unfortunately lots of people arrived to help, and I got busy, so I never got to challenge him with the whole 'walk down the stairs with the fridge' thing... maybe next move?!

We finished getting everything into the new house by about 3pm, and everyone left by about 4pm. And then I spent until about 2am unpacking and setting up my room (which is ALMOST done now).

Then Thursday morning, Trefyn came with me to IKEA because I've been saving up to buy a bunch of living room furniture. I got a 3 seater lounge with a chaise on one side, a 2 seater lounge, a footstool/seat for my room and a bedside table for my room. A side table for the lounge room, 2 bar stools for the kitchen counter, a chair for the piano, and a big entertainment unit (2 bookcases on either side - the same type I have in my bedroom) with a wide TV desk in the middle, and a bridging shelf above connecting the 2 books. I had decided to get it delivered for $100 since It was going to be way too hard to get that much stuff home and up the stairs again, lol! Anyway, Tref went all through IKEA with me while we picked the codes and then we got down to the big warehouse area, and I had my list. And because she had a few other places to go and because it had taken way longer than we'd expected, I said 'why don't you go. I'll be fine from here, I'm just going to take this list up to the checkout and then head over to the delivery counter so they can organize to get that list of stuff over to me'. Unfortunately, it turned out (when I went to the counter), that you actually have to (and this is how they make it a place with cheap-ish furniture apparently) pickup up all your furniture off the shelves and onto trolleys, pay for it, and wheel it over to the delivery counter ALL BY YOURSELF! I had figured if you were getting it delivered, they just did that bit FOR you! hahaha! My list was HUGE, and now I had no help!! Luckily, a (very) kind IKEA worker lady took great pity on me. She grabbed another trolley, we split up the list, and we spent 25 minutes pulling everything off the shelf (if James is the man when it comes to moving, this girl was TOTALLY the man when it comes to the IKEA warehouse). She pulled off way more stuff in the time it took me to grab the few light things she'd give me. And then she spent another 10 minutes reorganizing the trolleys so every fit onto two trolleys (which was kind of a miracle). AND then she helped me by pushing one of the trolleys over to the checkout. From there, I only had to get it across the floor to the delivery counter (right next to the 'large items' pickup area, which is where I had to pick up the 3 seater lounge with chaise), on a third trolley. And then I was able to wash my hands of all that stuff and head out of there! I tell you, I was so exhausted by then that I bought an $1 IKEA hotdog and sat down for 5 minutes to eat it :)

By then it was 12:30pm, and I decided to stop by Mum's because she's had a bit of a flu. And it was so nice to catch up with mum that I ended up staying there until about 4:20pm, when I had to race back down to work to catch up with that editor briefly. And then I was hope by about 6pm. I spent an hour cleaning the kitchen (there were still boxes everywhere and it was driving me crazy). And by 7pm everyone was home. So one of them made spaghetti while the rest of us started on the furniture. We managed (and here you will be OH so proud of me, though truth be told it was only because Tref owns a tool box and seemed to know what she was doing) to put together pretty much everything except the entertainment unit. I even put together one of the bar stools all by myself, and it had a back on it and everything. IKEA instructions don't have any words, by the way, just pictures. How weird is that?! lol! (another way to save money no doubt). We were finally done by about midnight.

So then on Friday (as you can tell, I took Thursday and Friday off work), I got up early and went over to the old place with Charlene to clean it ready to hand our keys in. We thought it would only take a couple of hours because we kept a pretty clean house. But it ended up taking AGES because it turns out that was way more to do than expected. lol! We got out of there after about 5 hours, but the place was sparkling. We had to pay a big deposit when we moved in, and if they don't see any problems we get it all back (which will be over a thousand dollars for me, which I'm looking forward to!), so think that should all be fine to come back to us (fingers crossed!). After that, I got a subway on the way back to the new place (the asian guy at the KP subway has learnt my name now, and he loves to us it. "Hi Tammy. How are you? Which bread would you like Tammy? How are Ben and Oliver, Tammy?'). And then I came home and sat and did nothing for almost a full hour while I ate a very slow lunch. I was pretty exhausted! Then Ashleigh came home and the two of us did the new house inspection (with a form, where you write down anything that's wrong with the house so that when you move out they don't think you did it), which took over an hour because the house is so big and old :) And then after THAT, Charlene came home and the three of us tackled the downstairs area so that it's all nicely organized. It's a gym down there, and it's a really huge and very cool space. Tref had a giant exercise mat so we put that together and then all the equipment is around the edges. It's very exciting to have a big indoor gym now. I can't wait to start on Monday :)

Then at 5pm I quickly ran upstairs, changed, and drove over to Jonny and Jessima's so I could babysit while they went to their stake Talent Night. Jenna had been promised that if she was good she could watch Shreck when I came over, so we did. It was so nice just to sit on the couch with Jordan on one side and Jenna on the other. They were both so cute and cuddlly (Jordan in particularly was very cuddly - he just snuggled up next to me under the blanket and watched tv for a while. I left Jordan stay up about 20minutes past his bedtime because he was sitting so quietly and was yawning, so I let him get good and tired so that when I took him up to bed he just went straight to bed (it totally worked - he didn't cry at all!) He's so cute. I put him in the cot, then I put one stuffed animal under one arm, one stuffed animal under the other, snuggle him under the covers, say his prayers, turn on his music, and close the door.

Jenna and I watched the rest of the movie, and then I said 'okay, tme for bed now' and she burst into loud tears "I need my mummy! I need my mummy!" Poor thing did NOT want me at all :) So I told her if we went upstairs and went to the toilet, and said our prayers and picked a story, THEN we could call mummy to say goodnight, and then I'd read her a story and she'd got to sleep. So that reduced the tears to sniffles and we went upstairs. Funny side note - when I walked into her room there were books all over the floor and I said "Look at this mess!" to which Jenna replied with a bit of outrage "This is not a mess! These are my BOOKS!" which warmed my heart just a little. Lol! When we called mummy I apologized for bothering her, but explained the situation and then handed Jenna the mobile (Jenna was sitting anxiously in her bed holding out her hand for the phone), and as soon as she got mummy on the line she burst into tears again "I need you here mummy, I need you here!" but Jessima just told her to read a story with Tammy and that they would be home soon and would come in and giver her a kiss. So we read the story (little mermaid) and then went to put her to bed, and of course, we couldn't find her doggy. So then we spent 15 minutes searching the WHOLE HOUSE, and couldn't find it anywhere. The tears were not far off, and it turned out that monkey wouldn't do even though I explained that he was probably "lonely on the floor there by himself" (I hadn't really expected that to work, but had to give it a try of course, lol!). And then finally I suggested (since I was exhausted anyway and was planning to sleep on the couch), that she sleep with me instead of with Doggy. Turns out that was acceptably. So we turned off the light and went to sleep. I probably fell asleep before she did, and then I woke up to Jonny and Jessima laughing at the end of the bed :) Good times!

This morning is Saturday, and my last day of 'not working' so It's a busy one again. I got up late (7:30am), have been writing to you guys for an hour, and Jonny's going to come over at 9am so we can put together the entertainment centre (with his awesome nail gun!) and then we'll go and buy a TV (the other thing I've been saving for), and once that's all set up I'll try and add finishing touches to the house and my room, and get everything finished and DONE in the house. And then tonight I'm going back to a girls desert night at Jessima's. It was going to be mum, Abby and me, but it's Uncle Mal's 60's birthday, so Mum and Dad are going to that, and it will just be Abby and I over with Jessima. Should be a fun night. I'm sure Abby and Jessima will both cook something awesome. I'm planning to bring Baskin and Robbins ice cream since I won't have time to cook today :)

Phew! Moving has been exhausting! You probably didn't need to know EVERY detail of my move, but once I start typing I'm like a weird possessed animal... lol!

Okay, I'd really better go now. Jonny will be here any minute and I"m still in my PJs :) I love you both so much, and am so proud of you. (I believe so much in what you're doing that I don't even MIND that I had to put up IKEA furniture and move house without the two of you!). Have a great week, and remember that you have a whole family of people back here in Australia who pray and fast for you all the time.

xoxoxox Tammy

Abandon Ship!

2011-08-15T17:43:00.003+10:00

Okay, for several different reasons (including the rats in the roof, the smells, the dead rat (or worlds largest hairball shaped EXACTLY like a rat... but we're pretty sure it was a dead rat) I pulled out of my shower drain the other week, the worlds dodgiest real estate agents, and the plague of horse flies that are coming down through the vents from the roof where they're obviously feeding on whatever the rats left behind (we've all become expert horse-fly-killing-machines!)).... We have decided not to renew our lease.

We're moving on Wednesday!

It's an old house with granny carpet and cork floors (which I don't like at all), so it's not nearly as nice as the current one. But it's got great views and awesome decks and verandas, it's 4 times the size, it's a little cheaper per person, and it (fingers crossed) doesn't have any rats!

*please, everyone, knock on wood*

Watch this space for photos, and wish us luck!

xo Tammy

The Veto System

2011-07-22T18:27:00.004+10:00

Okay, so I read this post on Abby's blog 2 minutes ago, and it made me laugh out loud. She totally caught the essence of the night out we had on Wednesday. Anyway, since it's the sort of post I would have written about our system if I wasn't too busy (and let's face it, lazy) to write on my blog, I thought it was appropriate for re-posting here.

So I'm copying and pasting.

(I apologize to family members who've already read it on Abby's blog.... lol!)

_________________

Last night I went out with Tammy for dinner. We're both vaguely pathetic when it comes to making decisions. This is okay though, because we have a system.

As we approached the piazza this is kind of how our conversation went last night (and most nights we hang out):

Abby: I veto the pub place.
Tammy: Okay I veto McDonalds
Abby: I veto the Mexican place - Cactus Jacks
Tammy: Huh, how come?
Abby: I don't feel like it.
Tammy: You always veto that place, interesting....I veto Sizzler - I hate that place!
Abby: I don't hate it...I veto...Addiction Cafe.
Tammy: How is that still open, does anyone eat there?!
Abby: I went there with friends once...of course I ate before I went...I bet James'd love it, he likes Asian food...
Tammy: Okay I veto the food court. The entire food court.
Abby: It's not even open!
Tammy: Well I veto it!
Abby: That's dumb
Tammy: I veto the foodbar at the bowling alley
Abby: I veto both chicken places.
Tammy: You can't veto two at once! Wait one of them's not a chicken place - I think it's Italian!
Abby: But we love Italian! How come we've never eaten there??
Tammy: I don't know - let's go walk past it. But I am not committing!
Abby: No way we're eating there on the night of our first walk-by - what if we don't like it!
Tammy: I veto Zarraffas.
Abby: Too late - you already did
Tammy: No I didn't!
Abby: Yes, but when you vetoed the foodcourt and it didn't count, I decided to transfer your veto to Zarraffas.
Tammy: But I transfered it to the bowling alley. Your veto.
Abby: Well, we just have Hog's Breath, the Coffee Club and La Porchetta left - I veto Hogs Breath.
Tammy: How come you don't like Hogs Breath? We never eat there!
Abby: I do like it, I love it when I'm pregnant! I just don't feel like it at the moment.
Tammy: Okay, I veto La Porchetta
Abby: Coffee Club it is!
Tammy: Thankgoodness for the veto system!
Abby: I know - we could never make a decision before it!

Later, at the Coffee Club...

Abby: I veto the breakfast page...and the drinks page...and the kids club/dessert page.
Tammy: I veto the alcoholic beverages
Abby: I veto...the pastas, and the two steaks in the mains menu... and do we need an entree?
Tammy: No
Abby: Okay, vetoing the entrees...and the salads section
Tammy: Wait! What if I want a salad?! Are you vetoing for me too??
Abby: You can do your own vetoing if you want..??
Tammy: Okay...I veto...
etc. etc.

And that's how we roll.

_________________________________

Thanks Abby - you rock!
xo Tammy

Worst news EVER

2011-06-08T07:18:00.005+10:00

We don't have a possum.

We have "groups of rats" living in the roof.

I can't even begin to tell you how grossed out I am. The pest man assures us it's not because we live in a dirty house (*sob*) especially since it's a brand new house and we've only lived here for 4 months. Apparently there's a plague of rats since the floods in January - but you only know about it if they've moved into your house.

Again, I'm so grossed out. The pest guy wanted to kill them for us yesterday, but he couldn't get onto the real estate agents to confirm that he could go ahead (*insert MASSIVE eyeroll here*), so I'll be emailing/calling/begging all day today that they call him and approve it, because I can't sleep another night in this house with 'groups of rats' keeping me up all night. *so so so gross*.

Brett and Michelle at work have taken great delight in our 'investation' though, and haven't stopped sending me rat-related you-tube links. Just between you and me, this one's my favourite...

Wish us luck!
xo Tammy

PS. Have I mentioned how TOTALLY grossed out we are?! No one leaves any doors or windows open AT ALL any more....

Ew ew ew ew ew

2011-06-07T09:05:00.002+10:00

Sharon from Pete's Possum and Pest Removal thinks it sounds like we have a possum and rats in the roof!

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!

xo Tammy

Potential victory on the horizon...

2011-06-06T10:10:00.010+10:00

__________________________________________________________
EMAIL SENT AT 9:30AM THIS MORNING:

SUBJECT LINE: Possums in the Roof - Worried about Damage

Hi xxxx,

Just wanted to drop you a quick email. I’m one of the tenants living at xxxx, East Brisbane.

We’ve got at least one very active possum living in the roof, and from all of the noise and banging, we suspect that they might be causing some significant damage? I spoke to the RSPCA, and they indicated that Possums can cause a lot of problems gnawing through the wiring, defecating, ripping up installation, etc. So we thought we’d better let you know before it got too bad. He’s been up there for a couple of weeks now. I left a message with your office last week, but no one called back, so I thought I’d better email.

Kind regards,

Tammy Munro

__________________________________________________________

EMAIL RECEIVED AT 10:00AM THIS MORNING:

Good Morning Tammy,

Thank you for your email, sorry I was not in the office Thursday or Friday however I will speak to the owner today about having the possum problem attended to and be in touch.

Kind regards,

xxxx

__________________________________________________________

Apparently real estate agents respond if the property is in actual danger. Isn't that fabulous?!

Take THAT Mr(or Mrs) possum! Who's the boss now?

xo Tammy

__________________________________________________________

Possum (not so) Magic

2011-06-02T16:40:00.005+10:00

Several weeks ago, we started hearing possums running up and down our roof at night. And they were loud. Surprisingly heavy too. Thundering across the roof really quickly, they sounding more like wild cats or buffalo than possums.

Then they started to fight a lot in the evenings. Horrible loud snarling and grunting sounds. Charlene and I have our bedrooms on the side of the house near all the trees, and that’s where they seemed to fight. It was surprisingly scary to listen to, and I’m now pretty convinced that possums fighting is a base sound that audio engineers use when they’re building the soundtracks for horror movies – you know the scene, when the girl-who-should-have-known-better goes running through the bush in the middle of the night with an unseen beast chasing after her? Yep. That’s the sound possum make when they’re fighting. And since the girl in the movies usually ends up dead, I started sleeping with my window closed. Anyway, the fights would last for about 2 or 3 minutes, and end with a shriek, a second delay, and then the thud of one of them hitting the ground 2 stories below. And the fights would go on for hours.

(Actually, someone told us that what we were actually hearing was possums mating, not fighting. But I’ve decided to ignore them and continue with the fighting scenario, which it’s less disturbing).

Anyway, all of that was a tad frightening (and annoying, since I like to have my windows open), but at least it didn’t ruin my life or anything. But last week, the possum found a way into the roof. At first it was “huh? Did you hear that?” and “wow. Sounds like the possum’s in the roof! How funny!” and even “feels like we’ve got people living in an apartment above us with that possum up there”.

But then he decided to mark out what I can only assume is a nest of some sort, right above my bedroom - a little to the right of my desk, to be more specific – and went on to have some kind of psychotic breakdown, since I’m pretty sure he’s as obsessive compulsive as the pewee birds at mum and dad’s place. And though I’m glad the doesn’t seem to be fighting (or mating) up there (for which I am unspeakably grateful) he’s still incredibly loud. And energizer-bunny crazy.

Possums tap. Did you know that? Loudly and constantly. They also scratch on the ceiling for hours at a time, leaving you to stare upwards with a resigned ‘any-moment-now-I’ll-see-a-long-clawed-paw-just-coming-through-the-ceiling’ kind of inevitability. Annoying. Distracting. A tad unnerving. But doable. Especially since I’m hardly ever home anyway.

But last night? Well, last night, the possum won.

1am – woke all confused and couldn’t figure out where the tapping was coming from. Finally woke up enough to realize and stood by my desk clapping loudly for a good few minutes before he stopped and I stumbled back to bed.

2am – Woke up again. This time tried clapping and turning the bathroom light on and off over and over again before he stopped and I stumbled back to bed.

3am – Woke up again. Clapped. Sang. Talked loudly. Turned bathroom light on and off many times.... stumbled back to bed.

4am – Woke up to find myself standing on my chair, outside the bathroom door, banging my drink bottle on the ceiling over and over again. Have no memory of how I got there.

5am – Figured it was probably lucky I don’t own a shotgun, or the roof would have been littered with massive Elma-Fudd-worthy holes.

By 6am, I’d decided to declare war.

I went to work, and I called the RSPCA. Now I was concerned that their suggestions would be a little too humane for the horrible creature in the roof (I was thinking along the lines of poisonous gas or a large bonfire), but I figured they’d be a good place to start. The chirpy animal loving girl on the other end of the phone sounded like she thought the possum was cute (clearly she’s never met one) and suggested we get a pest guy “they do cost money though”, or that we find the hole and patch it up one night when the possum’s left the roof (even though I explained that ours never leaves the roof).

I’ve since perused the website of several pest controllers who specialize in being possum-remover-extraordinaires, and while they tend to have very cool Steve Irwin style outfits and awesome action photos, they do indeed cost money. And I don’t think we’ll have much luck with the ‘finding and fixing the hole myself’ thing, since it’s a two story house and I haven’t forgotten the time I tried to climb a wheelie bin to access the second floor of Emily’s house in Washington last year...

So I did some more research and learned that possums are really bad in the roof because they ruin your installation and chew through wires. So I thought the real estate guys that manage the house we rent would be interested enough in this ‘horrific damage’ to fix the problem for me. They never reply to any of our emails or enquiries, but since this possum is likely ruining their house (“I’m just worried about the instillation and the mess he’s making up there and thought you’d want to know at once”) I thought they might be interested.

The receptionist sounded chirpy and interested and was going to get the agent to call me straight back. But that was 10 hours ago so though I’ll continue to try, he’s obviously going to ignore us about this just like he does with everything else.... *heavy sigh*

So for my first day of war, I’ve been pretty ineffective. And now it’s night time again. And he’s still up there! What is he even doing up there? I mean, they’re nocturnal! He’s supposed to be sleeping (quietly, I’d assume) in the roof during the day, and then going outside to hunt and eat and 'fight' on top of the roof at night. I don’t understand why he won't just leave me alone!

I’m going to head home now, and stare at the man-hole I discovered yesterday on the ceiling next to the main bathroom.... If I had a ladder, and a rabbies-proof-suit, and a shotgun, and a poisonous gas canister, and a gas mask, and if I wasn’t quite so scared that he'd kill me – I’d be tempted to stick my head up through the man-hole and into the roof, and show that possum who’s boss.

Because clearly, right now that darn possum is the boss.

And I just *yawn* I just want to get *yawn* some sleep tonight. That’s all...
*heavy sigh*

xo Tammy

Things I'm planning to write about...

2011-05-02T08:43:00.003+10:00

... When I have some time.

1) My new house
2) My day in Sydney with Bethy
3) The twins going on their missions
4) Easter
5) My thoughts on being single
6) New career options (basically things that will make me a lot of money, but
without requiring a lot of time.... it's currently an unfortunately short list)
7) Andre Reui concert in Adelaide with Grandma
8) Keith Urban (and Lady Antebellum) concert with Abby
9) Cousins dinner
10) Mothers day outing with Mum
11) October Holiday with Jenny
12) An essay on QLD as the ultimate holiday destination (in an attempt to lure
overseas friends here)
13) Baby girl Easthope #2

Some of those things haven't even happened yet. Can you believe how ahead of the game I am in coming up with blog post topics?! lol!

Okay, so odds are you'll never hear about all of them *sad sigh*. Maybe let me know what topics interest you the most, and I'll write for my audience... if indeed, it turns out that I have one.... lol!

xo Tammy

"I love the rain...

2011-04-18T08:09:00.003+10:00

... When it pitter-patters on my window pane
It makes the gardens grow
And the rivers flow
It makes everything green again
That's why I like the rain"

You're inside my head Don Spencer... everytime it rains, you're inside my head. So I ask the question: Do I love the rain because of you? Or do you just give voice to a love that was always destined to be? :)

We played the Tennis Ball game in FHE last night...

2011-02-08T07:15:00.003+10:00

... For almost an hour and a half!

I hate that game!

Like, really hate that game!

But, it was kind of funny that it took us that long. And we did laugh. A lot.

In between the crying. And the attempts at quitting. And the beating Oliver up when he dropped the hundredeth ball at the 54 minute mark.

(We really did kind of beat him up... He ran for shelter in the entry way and we all followed him and tickled him with a fury. Except Dad. Who was too tired because we'd been playing the game for so long. So he stayed where he was and tried to emotionally deal with the fact that we'd have to start all over again! But Dad did assure us that he was harrassing Oliver in spirit)

... LUCKILY I finally put everyone out of their misery and caught the hundredeth ball again. Excellently thrown by Oliver, might I add :)

I reckon it'll be three or four months before Dad let's mum pick the game again though...

:)

xo Tammy

Above the clouds

2010-07-31T17:44:00.002+10:00

Last Thursday night, I went to Sydney for work. Then on Friday night, I went to Adelaide for my Aunt's engagement party on Saturday night. And then very early Sunday morning I flew back home so that I could be back in Brisbane in time to teach my Sunday School class. So with all of that travel, I had the opportunity to take a couple of plane rides.

I love to fly. I mean, I really love it. I've done a fair bit of it in my lifetime, but it never gets old for me. I always (always) check-in online so I can get a window seat. I love the takeoff, and I love the landing. And most of all, I love just how beautiful the world is up above the clouds. Sometimes I wish I could just float up there for a few minutes, just to feel the quiet that I sense exists when there are no airplanes around.

So very early Sunday morning, I was sitting on the plane, reading the old testament and preparing my Sunday School lesson. The scriptures we were studying last week were so beautiful and so tender, and between those and the view out of the window, I felt very blessed. The sunshine was just glorious, and then down below, for as far as the eye could see, there were the most magnificent, fluffy, white blankets and fabulous clouds. The looked so strong and gentle and beautiful all at the same time and I just wanted to get out and walk up and down them and enjoy all of that peace. It was so evident that the hand of the divine was in that sight.

After a couple of hours, the pilot announced that we would be landing shortly, and we started our descent. I always enjoy going through the cloud layer. It's just a tiny bit thrilling and scary since you can't see anything, and I find myself having a lot of faith in the instruments up in the cockpit. It seemed to take longer than normal to get through the clouds though - the layers were really think. And when we finally burst out through the bottom of them, I did a bit of a double take. It was so gloomy and rainy and dark and cold! I don't actually mind that weather too much actually, but it was just SO different from the world ABOVE the clouds that it completely took me back!

It was probably just because I'd been in a 'lesson preparing' frame of mind for most of the flight, but the whole thing got me thinking, and I've been thinking about it on and off all week. I wonder how often I look up and see gloomy clouds, and rain and darkness, and I wonder how often I get to thinking that that's all there is? And yet I wonder how often the sun is streaming down gloriously, just on the other side of the clouds. And then I wonder what I can do to make sure I'm seeing and enjoying it. I think sometimes clouds gather because of a difficult test or trial, and those storms are real and valid, and require a lot of faith and effort on our part. And there's not much we can do about them. But I also think that a lot of the time I put the clouds there because of a bad attitude, or sin, or a general inclination to refuse to have hope :)

Regardless, I think I'll find it comforting to realize that no matter how dark the clouds might seem, the sun is still shining beautifully just above them. Ultimately, they'll dissipate - clouds always do - and the constant and brilliant sun will be visible again.

Your thoughts?

xo Tammy

A lovely lesson

2010-07-16T14:00:00.007+10:00

Mum taught our Family Home Evening Lesson on Monday night, and I really loved it. It was about patience, but she came at it from an angle I'd never really thought of before, and I've been thinking about it ever since her lesson. It really touched me, and has been giving me the energy to keep trying and the faith that my repetedly failed attempts at life are maybe not the failures I think they are.

Anyway, just noticed that she's written some of the same thoughts in a really beautiful entry on her blog, and wanted to recommend it. She's titled it 'Patience for Eternity', pop on over to her blog and have a read of the post if you have a moment.

xo Tammy

Quote Board

2010-07-14T23:35:00.003+10:00

This one's from Family Home Evening on Monday night.

DAD: (pointing suddenly at the engagement ring on Bethany's finger) Have you always had that ring?!

Total classic. She's only been wearing it since Robbie proposed in April.... If any of us ever dyed our hair, dad would have no idea who we were!

xo Tammy

A success 7 days in the making!

2010-07-13T06:42:00.004+10:00

Just thought you'd like to know that yesterday was finally a successful 'getting healthy' day... after a string of 7 'not so successful' days!

- Ate perfectly
- Drank an entire inland lake's worth of water
- Went 12km on the cross trainer (while watching 1 and a half episodes of 24)

Weighed in this morning expecting to have lost 6kgs overnight, and the scales let me down... pretty sure they must be broken... will have to buy new scales I suppose ;)

By the way, I've decided that the best way to start a diet is to spend the first week eating really badly, and eating too much of everything. By Sunday night I felt so sick that I actually wanted to get back into the fruit/vege/exercising thing. Can you believe it?!!! I guess I just don't handle bad food as well as I did last year! lol!

I've been looking online, and I think my next big holiday (which won't be for another year or two) should be in South America. I've got my eye on the most amazing 24 day trip: Cruising down the Amazon, hiking the Inca Trail, Machu Pichu and then flying out to the Galapolas Islands and sailing/snorkeling all through there. How awesome does THAT sound?! James and Jessima are all up for the Inca Trail climb too. Takes 3-4 days, and looks pretty difficult (although according to my research, once you finally get over Dead Woman's Peak the trek gets easier! lol!). I'm also working on convincing Jenny that she should come too :)

(My first choice was actually Antarctica, but Jenny said that would be to cold... hahahaha!)

xo Tammy

PS. Read the most adorable post on my friend Felicity's blog, and though you might enjoy it. What little girl doesn't absolutely adore her daddy?! I'm pretty sure I was planning to marry mine for several years there... ;)

This afternoon I....

2010-07-04T21:17:00.003+10:00

... cooked a double batch of cream filled pofita rolls with thick chocolate sauce AND a big custard tart - complete with home-made pastry.

Both were just for dessert at dinner tonight. I'm SOOO full right now!

... Can you tell my diet starts again tomorrow?

:)

xo Tammy

PS. Could seriously use some words of encouragement and some serious kicking-me-into-gear comments, by the way :) The first 15kgs have been off for about 2-3 months now, and they've made SUCH a fantastic difference to almost every aspect of my life, so I KNOW it's worth it.... but I've been really enjoying just sitting here on my laurels and eating anything I want to, and sleeping in in the mornings instead of exercising (winter is so cold and dark). So attacking the next 15 now is going to be a bit of a challenge....

Give me a t, T! give me an a, A! give me an m, M!......

Monday?

2010-05-25T17:56:00.001+10:00

Yesterday was Monday. But by the time I got home, I felt like it had been Monday multiplied by infinity.

Today was Tuesday. But in the car on the way to work they played 'Just another Manic Monday' on the radio.

They cursed my day.

Thanks for nothing 97.3.

xo Tammy

Yucky

2010-05-18T09:13:00.001+10:00

Oliver's throwing up
Ben's throwing up
Bethany's throwing up
Dad's throwing up
Mum's tummy is churning

I'm washing my hands with scalding hot water ever 30sec and yelling words of comfort from a distance.

Bluck.

xo Tammy

Don't worry, I'm not still at the airport!

2010-05-16T21:48:00.003+10:00

Okay, so I haven't written at all since I got back from my holiday! Sorry fans :(

I think there just keep being so many things I could write about, that blogging suddenly becomes really daunting and I start to feel like I'll never have time to write everything down in a post (which is strangly ironic, since I'm pretty sure I write some of the longest blog posts on the planet... pretty sure only my mother makes it to the end of some of them).

So I guess I'm hoping that this little post will break the ice, and I'll got back to writting as frequently (though perhaps not as entertainingly) as I did while I was on the holiday :)

Wish me luck! haha!

xo Tammy

PS. My favourite family quote since I've been back definately goes to Bethany. On the night I got back, dad cooked a delicious lamb roast (Sorry Tom Cruise, won't be able to make it tonight), and Bethany turned to me and said "What animal is a lamb again? cow, right?". Total classic! LOVE YOU BETHANY :)

PPS. We have the busiest month and a half coming up here at the Munro house: House renovations (leaky plumbing and termites - eek!), Bethany's engagement party, Family and Friends camp up at Mt. Tamborine (which we're organizing, so heaps to do), and then Bethany's WEDDING on June 25th. So all my 'new goals' for my 'new life' back fresh from my holiday will probably actually start in July :) But we'll have a lot of (stress filled) fun before then I'm sure. And then of course just the usual business.

PPPS. I've been released from YW, and called as the new Gospel Doctrine teacher in my ward. I'm sad to not be working with the YW anymore, and a little daunted by the whole 'teaching the adults the old testiment' thing. But I'm loving the oppertunity to spend the time studying and learning from the Old Testiment. It's so rich with applications. Last time I taught gospel doctrine (at BYU), it was the Old Testiment as well, so I'm pretty excited to be learning all over again that this book we're all scared of is actually one of my favourites :)

PPPPS. And yes, mum, I know not 'everyone' is scared of the Old Testiment.... lol!

PPPPPS. Back at the exercising. KILL ME! :) Truth be told though (and this is just between you and me, since I'd never admit to this public), it actually feels good! (gasp!)... but don't think I'm going to start liking vegetables anytime soon.... :)

PPPPPPS. Abby came had lunch with me at work in the park on Thursday - so fun!

PPPPPPPS. Sorry about the overused PPS's. You may think I should really make all of the above part of the body of my post. But then, I'd have to find connecting sentences that somehow connect all of these random thoughts.... nobody expects connecting sentences between PS's.... do they?!

:)

I'm coming back home....

2010-05-01T03:30:00.002+10:00

I can't believe it, but my holiday is over today.

I'm so so so sad to be leaving the Cooks. It has been WONDERFUL to see them all - especially Brecken of course. I've loved NY too, but if they'd been living in some random American town in the middle of nowhere (Los Lunas, New Mexico, for example), then that's where my holiday would have taken me - so I'm very grateful that they live HERE :) I'll probably hold it together through our goodbyes, and then cry my eyes out on the plane (blowing my nose on the sleeve of the person next to me, no doubt). I'll miss Brecken a whole lot. I know all of their friends and family are praying that Justin will get a job now that he's graduating, but they'll have an aussie down under praying that he gets a job in AUSTRALIA... preferable Brisbane... Now there's an incentive for me to be extra righteous from now on - because I'd really like to have that prayer answered.

I'm also really excited to get home and see my family and friends too though. So it's a real mix of emotions today. I never thought I'd say this, but after 5 weeks of traveling and suitcasing, I'm ready to get back to things (maybe not WORK, but you know, everything else - haha!). I have LOVED being on holidays, and you all know what a WONDERFUL time I'm having, but I've been feeling just a LITTLE guilty lately about all of this responsibility-free FUN! I think I'll feel better when I'm back to being a human-being who contributes to society rather than just perpetually holidaying :)

I expected this holiday to be a great one, but to be honest, I really didn't expect it to be as totally wonderful as it has been. My head feels clearer, my goals for the future have become more defined, ghosts have been put to rest, adventures (to the power of infinity) have been had, new places have been seen, copious amounts of delicious food has been consumed (diet starts again on Monday!), multiple items have been purchased (including clothing that won't fit for another several kilos - ego, diet starts again on Monday), wonderful wonderful friends have been visited, soul has been energised, and about 5 years of laughter has been crammed into 5 weeks.

I'm such a lucky, luckily, lucky girl. It really has been the trip of a lifetime, and I'm very grateful for the opportunities and the experiences.

So that's it for now folks. Brecken and the boys and I will head out not for an hour or two to get some of that Artopolis ice cream, and then I'm off to the airport (extra suitcase in tow).

I'm assuming a family member is still planning to pick me up from the airport early on Sunday morning.... right? My travel details are up on the cupboard, but just in case Mum's put them away in a cupboard and no one can find them, I'll be touching down at 6:25am Sunday morning.... could someone please pick me up?! :) :) :)

Thank you! See some of you again soon!
xo Tammy

PS. To those of you living in Brisbane who are NOT my family: If a week goes by and you still haven't seen a new blog post, could one of you maybe do a drive by the airport and check that I'm not still sitting there?

Day Eleven: Statue of Liberty & Ellis Island

2010-05-01T03:26:00.003+10:00

Subway trip to the end of the line
Battery Park
Ferry
Statue of Liberty (with Audio tour)
Ellis Island - lunch, tour, and last ferry of the day
Subway home - when you get on early, you get a seat!
Indian takeout delivered
30 Rock and bed!

WATCH THIS SPACE - I'll add details when I have time :)

Day Ten: Broadway Take Two

2010-05-01T03:24:00.004+10:00

'In the Heights'
Time Square
Hersey Factory & M&M Factory & Other shops
Dinner with Uncle Mal & Aunty Judy @ Famous Famiglia Pizza
'Wicked'
Dessert on Time Square - no scrap that - Dessert at home ;)
Talking late

WATCH THIS SPACE - I'll add details when I have time :)

Day Nine: Shack Shack, Maceys & Book Club

2010-05-01T03:19:00.004+10:00

More Rain
Shake Shack
Maceys - 9 floors over an entire city block & shoes as far as the eye can see
Hors d'oeuvres for dinner
Plans to go to Organ Concert @ St. Johns
Book Club

WATCH THIS SPACE - I'll add details when I have time :)

Day Eight: Shopping & Jazz

2010-05-01T03:18:00.004+10:00

Rain
Frog Princes & Relaxing at home
Grocery Shopping @ Fairway
Smoke Jazz Club - Dinner & Quartet & Jam Night
Home at 1:30am

WATCH THIS SPACE - I'll add details when I have time :)

Day Seven: Church in Manhattan

2010-05-01T03:16:00.002+10:00

Travel/Rain/Chapel
Musical Sacrament meeting
B&J's lessons
Catching up with friends
Homemade Pizza

WATCH THIS SPACE - I'll add details when I have time :)

Day Six: Central Park - Woohoo!

2010-04-30T09:21:00.004+10:00

I've always wanted to visit Central Park. Always. Obviously, we visited a section of it yesterday - and it was beautiful - but today's visit was to some of the more famous sections of the park. It was really exciting :) We walked for a good couple of hours (my feet aren't entirely convinced that it wasn't a good several hours), and had a marvelous time. It was Saturday, so there were a lot of people out at the park, but I really think that just made the whole thing that much better :)

The afternoon started with another trip on the subway. Yep. Still find the subway super exciting :)

So. We went to the section of the park us locals refer to as 'the 70s'. That's because it's in the horizontal strip of the park located around 72nd Street. We entered the park at 72nd street over on the West Side, and walked in a big circle through to the east side, down to 65th street, and back across and up again, so we exiting at the same spot we entered - Strawberry Fields.

Strawberry Fields is across the road from The Dakota - which is a beautiful (and very fancy) apartment building that's famous for a few different reasons - primary among them being that John Lennon was shot and killed as he exited the building. Yoko still lives there apparently :) And of course, Strawberry Fields is the place with the John Lennon 'Imagine' monument on the ground. It's a relatively small tiled plaza spelling 'Imagine', with a TON of people placing a TON of flowers on the monument, and a bunch of buskers playing Beatles songs :) Very iconic.

I should take a moment to give you a very quick side note: TONS of buskers all over this city. And almost all of them are incredibly talented. Opera singers in the subways etc. etc. Always enjoy listening to them.

So from Strawberry Fields we headed up to Cherry Hill - which has lots of Cherry Trees, and is right by the lake. When you see someone in a rowboat on a lake in Central Park (in a movie of course), this is the lake they're filming on. Of course, when there's not a film company paying so that you can be the only rowboat on the lake, you're one of MANY rowboats :) The lake was FULL! But I can still imagine that it's incredibly romantic :) And of course we walked over the bridge (famous as the place where Brecken took the photo of mum and dad looking like refugees from a tiny Eastern European country...). Loved it!

This is also where Justin and Reuben tried to have some fun with the boomerang that I brought for Justin. It was just too crowded for them to actually throw it properly, but luckily Reuben didn't know any better, so he was completely contended with some really sissy little boomerang throws :)

Next on the list was Bethesda Terrace. This is Brecken's favourite part of CP, and I can see why. It was really beautiful and very iconic. It has the boathouse from 27 dresses, the fountain from Enchanted (and a million other NY-centric movies), and the 100 year old reception centre where Brecken took some family photos recently (I think you'll recognize it). Unfortunately, the fountain was been renovated, so it was drained and covered in scaffolding. We did spend some time here taking photos though, and also spent a while watching a small group of hip-hop dancers who were very funny, and who had drawn a huge crowd of people - over a hundred I would say. Brecken says they're there every Saturday, and they perform at the bottom of a very large and wide staircase between the terrace and the upper road. So the crowd was in a ring around the stage area, as well as all the way up on the stairs, and lining the bridge up above. It was a lot of fun to watch them for a while, and they were very funny :) Then we took a bunch of phtos in the terrace:

Next on the list was the Conservatory Waters - which is the big pond where all the kids sale the remote control little sailboats. I recognized it from a movie - but can't remember which movie it was :) Anyone?! This is also where the big Hans Christian Anderson and Alice in Wonderland statues are. They were wonderful, and had kids crawling all over them :)

From there we walked on to The Mall, which is a beautiful big garden walk with the world's largest concentrate of American Elm trees. (Sidenote: I think we should all be a little concerned for the world's American Elm trees, because there was a nice gathering of them there, but it certainly didn't seem substantial enough to be the 'worlds greatest gathering' of them....). The great thing about The Mall was that it was set out to be a giant outdoor cathedral, so the trees are planted where the arches would be, and the floor plan for the park is a giant cross (lowercase t) shape. Very pretty.

We went down past the sheep meadow, and along some more walking paths before finally exiting out at The Dakota again. Such a wonderful afternoon with sunshine and beauty and excellent company :)

We then went to Dallas BBQ for dinner and had a giant feast - effectively putting back on every calorie we lost on our trek through Central Park :)

When we got home, we put the boys to bed, and we watched the latest episode of Bones on Hulu. If there's a better way to finish off a day, I don't know what it is.

REALLY love Central Park :)
xo Tammy

Day Five: Artopolis, Conservatory Garden & the MET

2010-04-27T07:25:00.004+10:00

Okay. I realize I'm starting to over-use words like 'perfect' and 'delicious' and 'amazing' and 'gorgeous'... but I find the English language lacking in more fitting descriptive words (I'm sure you could help me out here mother?!). Because today really was another perfect day. The food was delicious, the gardens were gorgeous and the MET was amazing.

We started the morning a little late (my fault again. I stay up so late talking each night that I keep sleeping in (Emily, I know you'll find that hard to believe). And then when I DO get up, for some reason it keeps taking me ages to get ready. Grrrr). So we headed over to Artopolis for lunch. To say that this place is a hidden gem, would be a gross understatement. Brecken, Reuben and I split a chicken crepe and a yummy yummy salad (which was delicious even though it had berries in it!). And then.... (drum roll please).... we ordered dessert.

This place is heaven.

(I thought that sentence should be it's own paragraph).

Brecken and I ordered 3 fancy little desserts to share, but Reuben didn't want a fancy dessert, so we just ordered him a little bit of ice cream (which was technically gelato).

All three of our desserts were DIVINE. So we asked Reuben if we could try a little of his Gelato. The following two photos are not staged:

This is where the words begin to complete fail me. That ice cream was.... well... it was.... like.... the BEST ice cream I've ever had. It was chocolate hazelnut (I didn't bother with the strawberry), and it was.... like.... truly.... well, it was like a slice of frozen heaven. A dream within a dream. Real 'I'll have what she's having' stuff. I could have died after eating that ice cream, and it would have been okay. Everything worth doing, would have been done. Ahh. I'll be dreaming about that ice cream. I don't even LIKE ice cream that much normally... *happy sigh*

I kept stealing extra spoon fulls when Reuben wasn't looking, because I kept thinking 'surely it's not THAT good'. But ever time, I was left just speechlessly shaking my head. I REALLY was, THAT GOOD.

Okay, we finally left Artopolis. Brecken only got me out the door by promising we'd go back there again before I left (And don't worry, I have a backup plan if it someone falls off our list of things to do: It's right across the street from the hospital, so if we had to go THERE for some reason, I could totally sneak in some ice cream.... are you thinking what I'm thinking people?!)

Okay, okay. So we left Artopolis, and caught the bus up and around to the Conservatory Garden, which is in the North East section of Central Park. The Conservatory Gardens are beautifully landscaped and kept English gardens. And, well, I'll let the pictures speak for themselves:

And then we went on to the MET - The Metropolitan Museum of Art. WHAT a fabulous place! We did a kids tour/class with Reuben first, and it was a lot of fun. They had a medieval musician come and play a bunch of instruments and talk a little about medieval music. She was wonderful - very talented and really interesting for both the parents and the kids (and of course the Australian tag-a-longs). Then we ran through the European Painting, Drawings and Photography, 19th and 20th century Painting, Greek and Roman Art, and the Musical Instruments. We would have loved to spend even longer there as we were only just beginning to cover the tip of the iceberg, but we ran out of time (and the MET really isn't the most interesting place for a 4 year old).

Saw some really, really beautiful pieces of art though. I think the Monets were my favourites - although really, everything from that period (which is one of my favourites), was wonderful.

And then it was homeward bound :) Justin had made Macaroni and Cheese for us for dinner (that sounds like nothing special, but he used a whole bunch of different and yummy cheeses, and it was delicious!). Then I sent Brecken and Justin off on a date so they could spend a little time together. Justin's just handed in his MFA thesis portfolio (the day I arrived, I believe!), so Brecken had barely seen him for weeks before that :) They went to see the movie 'date night', and I think they had a good time. The boys fell asleep qickly and easily, and then I spent a couple of wonderful hours talking on the phone to everyone at home. So great to hear their voices and catch up a little on everything that's been going on.

Okay. That's me for another day! I think I'm going to have to get that 'I love NY' symbol you see on T-shirts tattooed to my forehead....

xo Tammy

PS. Oh, and if you hear that someone broke into Artopolis looking for their chocolate/hazelnut gelato recipe, and that the police have a suspect in custody, would someone please come and bail me out? Thanks!

Day Four: Riverside Park, Farmers Market, St. Johns & Sookks

2010-04-27T00:33:00.003+10:00

Reuben has preschool on Mondays and Thursdays, and he loves it. It's a co-op preschool that some of the mothers in the ward (including Brecken) are a part of it. One of the mothers who got her degree in early childhood put together the syllabus and schedule, and then each mother takes care of hosting/running preschool for a week at a time. Reuben loves it every time, and Brecken loves it when it's the OTHER mothers' turn to take it :)

This morning Justin dropped Reuben off at preschool at 9am, and Brecken and I picked him up at 11:30am. They were all down at one of the playgrounds at Riverside Park for the last half hour (playtime), so that's where we went to pick him up. We had a lovely walk down there - I really really love Riverside Park (I think I mention it in my 'day one' post). It was also great to meet a couple of the other mothers who were picking their kids up, and to get a peak at Brecken's real NY lifestyle (as opposed to her playing-tourist-with-Tammy lifestyle). Most days Brecken says she'd stay a couple of hours at the park so Reuben could play, and it seems like lots of the other mothers do things like that too, so there's a really sociable neighbourly feeling to the whole thing - much more so than if you took your kid to the park in the suburbs :)

We got Reuben a SpongeBob icecream from the icecream truck (which looks nothing like SpongeBob), and then we headed off to the Farmers Market.

We forgot to take any photos of the farmers market, but it was really cute. Apparently it springs up there on the footpath outside Columbia University, every Thursday. They sold lots of fruit and vegetables and baked goods and fish. It was a lot of fun just to wander up and down there. Brecken got some apples for a pie she's going to make, and we got some asparagus, as well as a donut each :) I also got a little pumpkin pie from the people that grown the pumpkins and then make pies :) It was yummy!

While we were there, we also wandered onto the Columbia University campus, where Justin is just on the verge of graduating with his MFA in screenwriting. What a beautiful, beautiful campus! Such gorgeous old buildings with wonderful landscaping - and of course it was one of those perfect Spring days I remember so well from my BYU days. The kind of days that bring every student out onto the lawns and steps and paths, creating that laid-back, life-is-perfect mood that lulls every student into a false sense of security since their finals are JUST around the corner :) Incidently, Justin tells me they shot the Spiderman and Ghostbusters movies on Columiba's campus.

From the university, we set off for St. John's cathedral. It's a really, really beautiful cathedral - and very big. I think Brecken said it's the largest Gothic Cathedral in North America - but check the comments on this post in case Brecken needs to correct me :) Take a quick look at this link unless you're particuarly oppossed to Wikipedia (come on Abby & Emily, it's not as if I'm writing an English Assignment lol).

After the cathedral, we took 20-30 minutes to wander over to the Thai restraunt B&J love - Sookk. On the way, we passed a building with a plaque that made me go 'Brecken! Stop! Take a photo! This is where George GERSHWIN lived!' :) Brecken had actually never noticed it before (good thing she has me here to show here the TRUE gems of the city), so we took a photo :)

I realize that we only took a photo of the sign, so you have no idea what kind of building it was, but it was a nice building. Rest assured :) All the buildings are nice here in the upper west side. Really, I LOVE this neighbourhood.

We got to Sookk about 20minutes before Justin was supposed to meet us, so we walked over to a bench and took a seat to wait for him. This little part of the day was probably fairly forgettable for Brecken, but I loved it! Sitting on a bench watching the world go by? If I lived in NY, I reckon I'd do a lot of bench sitting :)

And then of course lunch (which was actually more like dinner at this point) was wonderful. Very yummy food, cute/trendy little restraunt, and lots of fabulous company and conversation. We spent a good couple of hours there, and the waitress took a photo of us on the way out - sorry it's so out of focus, but I thought you'd probably still prefer to see it.

It was starting to rain as we left the restraunt, so our plans to head on over to Central Park were deemed a bad idea. It was about 4 or 4:30pm by then anway, and I think we were all actually silently grateful that we could just go home. Actually, I'm not sure if Reuben was silently grateful not to go to the park... :)

We went home and watched 'You've Got Mail', since we still hadn't seen it since our trapse around the city. Such a great movie - I really do think it's got to be one of the more perfect examples of scripting in the Romantic/Comedy genre. And of course, it was fun to see all the places we'd been to.

Ahhhh. Another perfect day. Gotta say - I'm in love with this city. And I'm just a little chuffed to see that it really is as good as I always knew it would be - lol! I always SAID there was just a little New Yorker in me ;)

Day Three: Times Square & BROADWAY!

2010-04-26T00:02:00.013+10:00

Since I first heard of Broadway in NY and West End in London, it's been a bucket list dream of mine to see a show on both. I can't do too much about the West End part of that dream at the moment, but today, we did Broadway - twice! SO so so worth being a line on the bucket list :)

I had always thought that Broadway was a street in NY with all the theatres on it. It's not quite like that. Broadway is a really long street that pretty much runs the entire length (north to south, on the West side) of Manhattan. In fact, Brecken & Justin live on a street just off Broadway, but up on the upper west side. Broadway - as in where all the theatres are - seems to be more a standard, than a location, as lots and lots of the theatres are actually not ON Broadway.

But the theatre district is down in/around Times Square, and some of the theatres really are on the street called Broadway.

SO. We went down to Times Square at about 8:30am this morning, to make sure we were the box offices first up. They have a limited number of tickets that they always sell for cheaper on the day of a performance, and we thought that would be the best way to buy the tickets for today's shows. We had decided to see the play 'Lend me a Tenor' at 2pm, and then the musical 'Mary Poppins' at 8pm. We went to the theatres and purchased the tickets, and then we spent some time walking up and down times Square.

I LOVE Times Square! Really, really, really loved it. The energy and the sheer size of the place is really overwhelming. And for someone who loves to watch and read and analyze advertising - I was in heaven :) It got just a tiny bit overcast as we were taking these photos. I was trying to fix my hair before the photo, and I thought the photos Brecken took made a funny sequence :)

I also saw Samuel L Jackson, and had a nice chat with him too, so that was fun. I usually don't post photos of my side profile, but thought I'd better make an exception this time, so you could all have the chance to meet him too....

After a couple of hours there, we headed back to the upper west side to drop Reuben and Simeon at some friends house, so that Justin, Brecken and I could head back to see Lend me a tenor. Check it out quickly on this link if you have a second. This play was absolutely perfectly executed, and one of the funniest things I have ever seen. It was directed by Stanley Tucci, and it had his signature all over it. It was staring Anthony Lapaglia; the guy who plays Monk in 'Monk'; and the guy who was the sidekick in National Treasure (they all have real names and have done other things, but that's how you guys will all know them). The physical humour was really impressive, and the comedic timing was spot on - every single time. LOVED it, loved it, loved it. We laughed out loud for the entire 2 hours. It was a farce, so lots of doors opening and closing and people hid in closets and exited out one door as the person chasing them appeared through another etc. It had mistaken identity with confusion reigning, and an absolutely hilarious crazy angry Italian wife. So if any of you are out here for any reason during the next several months - go and see it!

Then we went back and picked up the boys so Brecken could feed Simeon. Justin took the boys home from there, and Brecken and I headed out for dinner and our evening show. It was so much fun to have some girl time with her, and I think we both really enjoyed it.

We went first to Care Lalo - the cafe from You've Got Mail. When we saw it the other day, I knew I would never be able to leave NY until we'd eaten there at night time :) We went in and took our seats, and spent at least 5 minutes admiring the cuteness of the store and the extensiveness of the deserts on display (we reckon there were at least 20-30 different cakes/pies). Then we opened the menu and looked for what we wanted to eat. We spent about 5-6 minutes looking through the menu, and everything looked 'wonderful', but nothing was actually jumping off the page at us - that's when we both suddenly realized that it was vegetarian restaurant! Nothing on the menu had any meat in it, which is why nothing was jumping out at either of us - haha! We had a good laugh when we realized, and then decided to order a spinach torte with a Mediterranean vegetable salad, and homemade guacamole and corn chips to share. Despite the fact that it was vegetarian place (lol!), we LOVED dinner. Everything was SO yummy and just crammed full of delicious flavours. We actually ran out of time for dessert, but dinner had been so great it wasn't a problem.

That last photo was actually taken by a guy in the building across the street who'd seen us taking photos of each other, and thought we might like a photo together - nice of him, huh?! :)

Then off we went to Mary Poppins - it was really wonderful. We'd picked this one because I wanted to have the chance to see a Broadway musical with the 'magic' of Broadway. Phantom, Cats, West Side Story and lots of other classics are playing, but I've seen them before (never here of course, but still), and thought it would be fun to see something else. Everyone in the show was fabulous, but that real star of the show would have to have been the sets. The house moved and changed and had secret magic tricks I still can't figure out (ie. Mary Poppins pulling everything out of her bag, etc.), and Bert walked upside down on the ceiling, and Mary Poppins flew through the air (ask mum & dad about it - they've seen it too). It was great :) Big grins on faces as we left.

So that was Broadway/Time Square day. I think you'll have to watch this space though, because there's another 'Broadway/Time Square/2 shows in one day' day coming up again next week! hahaha!

I'm addicted. *Happy sigh*

LOVE YOU ALL LOTS!
xo Tammy

Day Two: Brooklyn Bridge, Boy in a Fountain, China & Italy

2010-04-25T02:11:00.010+10:00

Today was a totally FABULOUS day. It started, of course, with another trip on the subway. I realize that the Subway is a part of daily life in NY, but I still think it's cool, so it still gets a mention - and a photo :)

I love that photo by the way, it looks like one of those advertising panels you see on the side of bus shelters. You know, the ads for products they can't show an actual picture of (usually health industry related), so they settle for the smiling person.... 'I got the Cervical Cancer Vaccination', 'I took out a life insurance policy', 'I say no to smoking'...)

We took the Subway out to Brooklyn, which is off Manhattan Island - not that I noticed, since we were in the subway. And then we had lunch at an Egyptian Falafal place in Brooklyn Heights. I liked Brooklyn Heights a lot - another cute neighbourhood. And the Falafal place is a little hole in the wall with great food. Yummy lunch. We ordered several 'sides' to taste things, and we pretty much had to roll each other out of place when we left. Luckily, we were on our way to work it off :)

Then we walked over to the Brooklyn Side of the Brooklyn Bridge, and began our walk across the Bridge back to Manhattan. It's about a mile, but it didn't take long at all. I loved the Bridge, and I have NO idea how they managed to build it so long ago! I'll have to put that bridge on my list of things to read up about. It's a beautiful bridge, and the views from the bridge were wonderful. Liberty Island and the rest of the NY harbour off to the left, and the skyline of Manhattan opening in front of us. The financial distract with it's massive sky scrapers were up on the left, and the rest of the skyline in front and over the right was excellent too. Couldn't get very good photos of it really, but I love the variety in colours and styles. The architecture is just so much older that anything we see at home, and there's so much character and history - and so many different and distinct styles. I think it's the variety I love.

Once we got to the other side of the bridge, we had a quick bathroom stop at Starbucks (since they have bathrooms at Starbucks), and we said goodbye to Justin who had to head off to go to uni to teach a class. Brecken and I wandered into the City Hall Park, which had a beautiful fountain with pretty gardens (it's spring, so the flowers are spectacular).

We set out to take some photos, and took turns with the camera. I'm still not very good at it, but I've been really enjoying it. Reuben was having fun walking on the edge of the edge of the fountain. Brecken kept telling him not to do it, but he kept finding his way back on :) Then he learnt an important lesson "Always listen to Mommy". I had the camera at the time, and catch the events as the unfolded....

I think Brecken summed it up perfectly on her blog, so I'll just quote her: "Reuben walked the edge. I told him to stop. I told him not to do it again. I was clear. I explained that he could fall in, and we had more plans for the day, and being wet would not be good for those plans. He ignored me. He made it three quarters of the way around when he started to run to regain balance. Tammy and I had seen him do this successfully before...but this time he was unsuccessful. He was running, then he was up to his neck in water, scrambling out. Tammy and I couldn't stop laughing. Tammy conintued to click photos, and I did head over to help him. The man you see walking towards Reuben in the in-the-fountain photo was a little shocked that we were laughing so hard. "Are you okay, kid! Are you okay?" Reuben's response: "That was really deep." He spent the rest of the day in his windbreaker, and the wet underwear, because no amount of wringing was going to dry those clothes enough. He wasn't hurt, just wet, and what else was there to do other than laugh. And, I had warned him, so he was asking for it. We went to Chinatown. Reuben sat quietly in the stroller, showing off way too much leg"

After the City Hall Park (and associated fountain adventures), we headed off to China Town. We forgot to take photos there - sorry. But it was still fun. We went to Brecken's favourite section - where the vendors are less agressive! The funny thing about China Town is that every vender sells exactly the same thing: Jewlery, hats, shawls, bags, magnants and "I love NY" T-shirts :) Brecken had also told me that as we walk along we'd have people whispering 'Gucci' 'Prada' 'Coach' etc. as we walked past them... these people would then - if we showed interest - take us into a side ally and show us their full range of really well done fake name-brand items! It's illegal, so they can't advertise it opening, which is why they just whisper it at you as you walk past. I was pretty delighted when we went to China Town and people actually whispered 'Gucci, Prada, Coach, JAG' etc. as I walked past :)

And then we went to little Italy, which merges with China Town over a street or two. All of the vendors in Little Italy sell the EXACT SAME THINGS as the vendors in China Town :) But with Italy stall/store owners and flair, instead of Chinese. I thought that was pretty funny. Little Italy was wonderful - I really loved it. We had some great Gelati from a Gelati stall on the sidewalk.

While we stood eating our gelati, we noticed some guys working across the street. They were obviously renovating a second floor apartment, and we trying to pull out all the old stone/wood/drywall materials that they were pulling out of the apartment there. We thought their approach was very funny though! They seemed to have a rope that they tied small bundles to, and lowered down to the people on the street below, who then untied it, and threw the little piece of whatever into the back of their truck. Those guys, are going to be there FOREVER! For all we know, they've already BEEN THERE forever! They didn't seem to be too bothered about workplace health or safety either, so I don't know why they don't just grab a dumpster and throw everything over the eadge of the scaffolding into the dumpster.

Brecken was telling me that the old 'piano falling out of the sky' thing came about because people in NY sometimes did/do the same thing with pianos - hauling them up or down the outside of a building in order to get them in through the window. It was while we were having this conversation that one of the guy's bundles came undone and it's contents crashed down on the sidewalk! Luckily, no one was killed :)

After the yummy gelato and the entertaining construction themed street show, we headed off to get some Italian bread to eat with the Spagetti Brecken made for dinner. Wonderul way to finish a wonderful day:)

xo Tammy

New York: Day One!

2010-04-20T22:48:00.014+10:00

I'm in NEW YORK people! With BRECKEN! Ahhh, so very exciting! And of course, I'm having a fabulous time :) I started seeing stereotypes before the plane even landed, and I've been seeing them ever since - which leads me to believe that NY is actually portrayed accurately in books and movies. The Taxi ride to the CookShack was easy and interesting (Brecken had written me a paragraph of instructions about what to do and say from the second I picked up my luggage, and everything worked exactly according to plans. Even the 'and if he doesn't know where that is, tell him it's.....' which was handy, because he didn't seem to recognize their street name when I first mentioned it).

And then I finally got to hug all of the Cooks. It was so so wonderful to see them all again. Especially Brecken of course :) We stayed up talking until almost 3am, so we were a little tired the next day. Not enough to stop us from having a wonderful time though!

Day one, we decided to do the 'You've Got Mail' tour. I'll have to watch the movie again now, because some of the places we visited looked exactly like the movie, and some looked nothing like the way I remember them, so I'll need to take another look :)

B&J live on the cutest street of buildings, and I'm in NY at the 'perfect time of year' since so many of the trees are full of blossoms at the moment. So I'm a lucky girl.

1) We rode the subway. (That's not really an official stop on the tour, but I thought it was cool, so it gets a mention)

2) Verdi Square. This is the 'I hope your mango is ripe' bench conversation. It's really pretty with tulips etc. at the moment. Ohh, and it's right next to Hugh Grant's building in 'Music and Lyrics'. Justin says there's an establishing shot of the square - so I'll have to watch that movie too I guess :)

3) Grays Papayas Hotdogs. Okay, so these aren't from 'You've Got Mail', but they are from lots of other movies (Fools Rush In), and they were YUMMY! Even though they're only little hotdogs, you end up craving them a few hours later. And then again the next day. As in, I could use one RIGHT NOW. B and I aren't completely convinced that they don't put some sort of illegal addictive substance in those hotdogs...

4) Crumbs. Again, not from You've Got Mail - but a good dessert for our hotdogs lunch :) They sell yummy cupcakes there. Justin chose perfectly, because his had a chocolate filling. I chose pretty well, because mine was ALL chocolate on the outside, but then had a vanilla filling *sigh*. But don't worry everyone, because I'm 'watching my weight' (hahahaha), I left the filling....

5) Zabaras. I LOVE this little store. It is SOOO cool. They ONLY sell cute gormuet brands here. Bethany would starve and I would never stop smiling. Grocery shopping is fabulous at the best of times, but this takes that hobby to a whole new level. We bought some olives for a snack and dinner. Not too many - but it was just so fun to pick them. Oh, and then I went through the 'cash only' line... Since Tom Hanks wasn't there, I paid with the cash in my wallet.

6) H & H Bagels. This is the neighbourhood bakery with a cloud of flour. Great place, but really hot inside since they're cooking the bagels :) We got some to have for dinner last night - very very yummy dinner.

7) Cafe Lola. "Oh yes, she's very pretty" "I knew she was. She had to be!"
I fell in love with the inside of this cafe - it looks exactly like it does in the movie. In fact this place was only place that I recognized immediately. (Don't they know they're supposed to have a last name? It's like an entire generation of cocktail waitresses!). We're going to try and head back there for dinner one night - maybe before we see a show... (Which, by the way, is going to be tricky. I kind of want to see tens and twenties of shows on Broadway!)

8) The boat basin - where the Foxes keep their boats. "Hello New Jersey!" It's actually part of Riverside Park - which I LOVE by the way.

9) And then Riverside park - where they finally meet in the last scene of the movie. And as I mentioned above, I LOVE this park. It's huge - my guess would be that it would take you an hour to walk all the way all it (but I could be wrong of course!). It's long and narrow and runs along the shore of the Hudson. This is the 'neighbourhood' park, as opposed to the 'tourist park' that is Central Park... well, that's what I'm told anyway. Lots of joggers, and nanny's with strollers, and readers on park benches.

Brecken let me try my hand at photography - which is a LOT of fun with a nice camera :) I took lots and lots of very average photos, but managed to also take that last one with the tulips - so pretty!

Okay, so that's our day. We were tired by the end of the day, and then of course we stayed up late trying to plan the rest of my holiday (we'll know everything for sure once we visit broadway tomorrow and decide on show/s... (that's right, I added an S... lol!).

Oh, and before I go, I should probably add that all of the You've Got Mail locations take place on the Upper West Side - which is EXACTLY where I'll live I'm ever super rich and living in NY. I LOVE it :)

xo Tammy

Start spreading the news (ba, badada, bada) I'm leaving today (ba, badada, bada) I want to be a part of it.... NEW YORK NEW YORK

2010-04-18T23:21:00.002+10:00

Hello everyone! I'm SOOOO excited to have seen Bethany's gorgeous ring - really bethy, it's SO cute! AND to read a little more about the details of this upcoming wedding (I TOTALLY vote for November... think how cute and skinny I'll be in November! I would be a rockin' hot bridesmaid...) SO I thought I'd write on my blog again :)

This morning (in about an hour and a half), I'm leaving for NY. I'm really sad to say goodbye to some of my friends here in Utah, but very very excited to be off to see the Cooks! Can't believe I'll get to hug them all tonight :) But first, I guess I'd better tell you about day 2 in Me-hee-co!

Jenny and I got up really early to catch the first tender boat to shore at just after 7am. When we got off at the piers, there were people holding up signs, and while we might have felt a little more comfortable heading for the person holding the 'shopping and sightseeing tour' card, we bravely headed over to the lady with the 'parasailing' card. There were 5 of us in this early parasailing slot - a young couple, jenny and me, and another girl called Mindy who couldn't find any friends to do it with her. Brave girl for coming anyway! The boat had two people on it - a driver and the guy who hooked us all up - and neither of them were named Jose/Hosea... sad!

As we heading out in the boat, I was still feeling pretty brave (I learnt to push fear down to the bottom of my tummy and jam a lid down hard over it in my piano performance days), but Jenny was looking a little green.

Tammy: Are you okay?
Jenny: No! I'm terrified!
Tammy: Why are you doing parasailing then?
Jenny: Because YOU wanted to!

Ahhhh. What a wonderful friend :) As we were driving out, they gave us a clipboard and had us fill out our names on the list. I wisely declined from writing my name in the number one spot (just this once) - I'm not stupid! I put my name in number three, and Jenny's in number four. Which meant we went AFTER the poor young couple who had to fill in slots 1 and 2. We could all decide to do it in tandem (pairs) or single. The couple decided to go tandem, J and I decided to go tandem, and Mindy was happy to go by herself. Right then!

The couple each got a (really small and not at all confidence inspiring) harness tied onto them (not clipped - tied), and then they were clipped to the horizontal bar and told to sit down on the patio at the back of the boat. Then they let the parachute go and the boat took off, and before long - wa-la! They were up in the air! As they were flying up through the air the driver was talking to the other guy about the fact that it was a fairly low-wind day, which got us a little worried. I asked if he was sure it was okay for Jenny and I to go up in tandem, or if it would be better to go singly, since I didn't want to die by 'falling from a great height'. The captain reassured me by saying 'It's okay. If weight is too heavy, I will draw the line'. That made me feel much better, until he pulled out a massive knife and held it, with a massive grin, against the main line holding the couple up in the air. THAT'S when I realized he'd said 'It's okay. If weight is too heavy, I will CUT the line'. Hahahahahha. NOT funny :)

Minutes later Jenny and were put in our (skimpy) harnesses and tied to the bar and sent to sit on the back of the boat. I only had time to give the captain a stern look and a 'no knives!' before we were suddenly sailing waaaaaay up in the air. It was AWESOME! Soooo much fun. They views were stunning, and the ride was just so wonderful. It took about 15 minutes all up - 6 up at the 600ft altitude, and the rest going up and coming down again. And it was so fun to have Jenny with me up there so we had something to talk about:

Tammy: This is AMAZING!
Jenny: Can you see any sharks down there? I really don't want to see any sharks.
Tammy: Look! It's the arches! And the ship - see our ship?!
Jenny: Wait, I see a shark! Oh, wait, no, it's nothing.
Tammy: Everything is sooo beautiful!
Jenny: I really don't want to be eaten by a shark... I hope they don't land us in the water by accident
Tammy: This is AWESOME!

It's always good to have someone to share things with :) My favourite moment was when Jenny pointed at the ocean and shrieked "Look at that MASSIVE octopus! Oh my goodness! That's HUGE!" with a tone that inferred impending doom. It took me a second to realize that she was pointing at the shadow of the parachute down on the water. I DIED laughing! I laughed SO hard I almost feel out of my harness (but I remembered my promise to Brecken that I'd make it in NY, so I stopped). Jenny started laughing too when I pointed it out to her. Her octopus was indeed 'huge', and a perfect circle except for the weird looking tail (the shadows of the two of us hanging from the parachute). Good times. All too soon it was over and they were reeling us back in. But we're so glad we did it.

After that, we had a couple of hours to kill before we met up with Peta and Brandon and P & J's friend Jen (not to be confused with Jenny), for the jetskiing. So Mindy came with us as we wandered through the markets. The markets were really fun, and there was a lot of cool stuff to see (as well as an awful lot of junk). But those street vendors are sooo scary for a person who has trouble saying no! Jenny and Mindy kept realizing I wasn't with them and backtracking to find me being held hostage by a man or women who were insisting I buy whatever trinket I'd accidentally looked at for a second too long :) I was doing my best to say 'no', but I realized after I while that I just had to not engage any of them in conversation, or they never let you go! I don't always want to buy something when I pick it up to have a better look or ask 'how much'!

The bartering system was in full swing there too (which again, I found much more terrifying then 4-wheeling or parasailing). They'd start at 15 dollars, and by the time I was being dragged away they'd be yelling 'one dollar! one dollar!' and trying to press the object into my hands. My favourite thing about the market was the call that they all used (that I quickly got used to) of 'It's free! It's practically free!' to try and get our attention. At one point, I stopped and said 'really? how much?'. When they replied 'Eight dollars', Jenny snorted in derision and dragged me away with a 'that's not practically free. 2 dollars is practically free'. Which meant, of course, that they followed me for another 20 metres yelling 'fine! 2 dollars!'. And they ALL use guilt too. Ooodles and oodles of guilt. Especially the ladies. When you say 'no, thankyou', they look at you as if you've just murdered every child they have, and are burning down their house. I kept having to recite 'I didn't murder anyone' as I was being dragged away - I'm not good with guilt!

SO it was a fun morning :) We had a late breakfast together (SOOOO good) before we met up with the others for lunch. I was too full to eat anything, but I ate lunch anyway becuase the food is SOOOO good in Mexico :)

Now, the afternoon is where things started to go a little awry! Every other activity we'd down (much to the derision of certain people), Jenny and I had booked through the ship. Everyone told us it was much cheaper to book with the men standing on the shore. But because I'm my fathers daughter, I just felt more comfortable trusting my parasailing self to the legitimate company the ship recommended. Well, we were throwing caution to the wind with the jetskiing - because let's face it a) we were running out of money, and b) how badly wrong can jet-skiing go? By the time we got back on the ship in the afternoon, we were very grateful for all the other times we'd booked through the ship :)

Jenny and I had scouted out a fellow named Francesco during our shopping hours, and we had booked in 3 jetskiis (2 doubles and 1 single) for a small group later that afternoon. We'd each given him a $5 deposit (he wanted $10, but we said '$5' - haha!). So that was set for 1pm, and we'd only have 2 hours, because the last tender service for the day left at 3:15pm, and we didn't want to get left in Mexico (which actually happened to one of the girls in our group on a previous cruise - ahhh). So we all set off to see Francisco and get our jetskiis. Unfortunately, we had been going by the time on our watches (ship time), and Francisco had been going by Mexican time - so we were an hour late and the guy who was supposed to pick us up in a little boat and take us to a beach that had all the jetskiis had already gone.

Francisco didn't want to let us down though. So he started fast-Spanish-talking, and got us into a water-taxi. First we had to pay a 'pier tax' that we'd never heard of before though - which is when we started to worry. We got in the water taxi - which didn't look safe - and the driver was eating his (delicious looking) lunch. We sat there for about 15 minutes while he finished it... clearly he wasn't in a hurry like we were! We were a little relieved with Francisco got in the taxi with us right before it left ("ahh! Francisco! We're glad you're coming with us, thank you!" "Of course! I have to make sure you get back on time, and that you get the ride you want" etc. etc.).

So we taxi over to a beach. Now, the interesting thing about these Cabo beaches is that they're incredibly steep. 5 feet into the water, the water's up over your head. Which makes for some crazy surf right there on the beach. There's no water, then there's a massive wave crashing over your head. Well, we get about 5 - 10 feet from the shore, and the taxi drive says 'okay, jump out'. That's when I remembered the cruise director talk from the first night, where he says 'don't get into any water taxis. They can't take you to shore, and will make you jump out'... We just hadn't realized that it was a dodgy water taxi since we were going through a tour company... granted, it was Francisco's tour company...). Well, Francisco and the driver argued back and forward for a good five minus in Spanish, before Francisco lost the argument. He jumped overboard in between swells, so he only landed in water up to his knees and raced ashore pulling the boat behind him. Jen (P & J's American friend) was next. The poor girl looked terrified, but she threw her bag to Francisco, held her shoes in one hand, and leaped overboard. Again, she'd timed it pretty well, and was only in water up to her knees before she scrambled up the shore. So that left Jenny, Peta, Brandon and I hovering in this terribly rocky boat waiting for the opportunity to jump overboard (there was a part of me wondering how we'd ever get back INto a boat, but since I was being adventure tammy in mexico....)

Suddenly the driver started shouting at us, and we didn't know what he was saying - and then a huge wave hit the boat, and we DID know what he'd been saying. We crashed backwards into the boat, and Jenny was the one worst hit - she fell into the very bottom of the boat (about 1.5 metres) and slammed into the metal side of the bottom - bad bruising the next day - poor poor girl! At this point, the driver decides it's too dangerous, and starts driving away - leaving Francisco and Jen on the beach! We tried to talk to him, but he ignored us, so we just waved good by to Francisco and Jen. Oh, and I laughed. At that point, what else was there to do!

The driver goes a little way down the beach, decides it's safer, and makes us all jump out! Very scary, but we completely wet by the time we got to shore but our bags weren't too wet, so we decided it was a success. We start running down the beach towards Francisco and Jen, and they're running up the beach towards us. Took us about 20 minutes to reach each other. By this time, it's a little after 2pm, and we told Francisco that as much as we'd wanted to go Jetskiing, we still weren't anywhere near the jetskiis and we only had an hour or get back to the tender docks, so we'd better just give up. He looked very sad (darn that guilt!), and said "I guess I'd better give you back you're money then', and handed us back the roll of money we'd all contributed too - $180 all up I think. We gave him back $40, because he really had tried to give us a good ride, and because we're the ones who'd messed up the time originally, and because his guilt trip was working. Brandon tried to give him a little more as a tip, but Francisco refused to take anymore money, and we all thought 'what a decent guy!'.

Francisco said it would be a 45 minute walk back to the tender dock, so we'd just make it. We were soaking wet though, and it didn't seem like too much fun. Suddenly a guy appears and starts talking to Francisco. They guy had a uniform on, so we felt okay about that. He offered to give us all a banana boat road for $10. I'd never been on a banana boat before, but it's basically a long tube with handles, and you straddle it like a horse, and get dragged behind the boat. When he offered to drop us off on the beach NEXT to the tender pier, I was sold! Here was a way to salvage our afternoon and at least do SOMETHING fun :) Brandon was too scared we'd miss the boat and decided to walk back with Francisco, but us four girls were game. So we waded out into the surf again (no one comes to you on the beaches in Cabo) with our bags held up above our heads, and swam over to the boat. Then we dragged the banana boat part into shallow water, and climbed on. I was somehow the one in front - if we hadn't been in such a hurry, I may have realized I didn't want to be sitting there...

The speed boat took off, and we grasped those handles for dear life! I started yelling something about a lifejacket, at which point the driver slowed down and came alongside us to throw them over to us. We barely had time to get them only properly before he took off again. Seriously - it was terrifying! Fun - but only with the right attitude, because actually, it was terrifying! We were bucking around back there like some crazy rodeo, and the driver was driving like Bethy! Ahhh! The waves weren't small either, so we were up and down up and down! And he took us right out to sea - past the cruise ships and everything. Suddenly, he turns back around and gives me this crazy grin as he turns super fast. I barely had time to register the "He's going to throw us into the water" before all four of us were thrown into the ocean. We came up gasping for air, and in shock! I looked at the startled faces of the other 3 girls and then burst out laughing. We all looked so shocked! hahaha! We bobbed up and down in the ocean waiting for him to bring the banana boat back before we realized that we were supposed to swim to it. So we did. We got there, and spent about 4 or 5 minutes getting the boat back up the right way, and then set about trying to get back ON the boat. Really hard! Finally, we realize that with all of us on the one side, the boat would keep turning over, so two of us swam to the other side to steady it, only, when I got there, I realized only one of us was there to steady the boat on that side.

It's okay. I mean, I couldn't see anyone, I couldn't reach any of the handles because they were up too high, and Jenny swore she saw 5,000 sharks during our parasailing excursion, but it's all good. I got yanked up out of the water several times and slammed back in as the girls tried to get into from the other side. Eventually Peta made it back up. Then she tried to help Jen ("pull her up by the life jacket" screams the driver.

Oh goodness - I'm running out of time (we need to leave soon), but sufficeth to say that it took us about 15-20 minutes to get us all up on that banana boat, and I have seriously never laughed so hard in my life. The driver was just dying laughing for most of that time (though not once did he come and help us!). As the brave Australian least afraid of sharks (haha), I was the last one out of the water, And I was grateful that neither Fancisco or Brandon had joined us, because no male should ever see four girls looking so completely ungraceful. As Jenny was trying to pull me up, for example, she did so by grabbing my shorts and pulling, which did nothing to get me back up on the boat, and everything to make it difficult for me to walk once we got back to shore. At the same time, Peta's grabbing my bottom and pulling for dear life - all the while apologizing that she was grabbing my bottom, and I'm screaming 'that's okay, just pull!'. And Jen had my life jacket, and in an attempt to pull me up was essentially pulling it off - of of course pulling me in a different direction from both Peta AND Jenny. And the whole time, we were all laughing SO hard. We had to keep stopping because we were laughing so hard.

Eventually, we got back on, and the driver (who'd obviously gone way over his time limit) was too scared of us falling back in again to driver like Bethany. He drove like Dad all the way back to the shore. There was a minor incident when we realized that our bags were all in the boat, and the boat couldn't get in close to the shore. He started telling us his uncle had a tender boat, and he'd get our bags to the ship, but we told him we'd give him a life jacket back every time he gave us one of our bags, and that sorted that out.

By the time Brandon made it to the tender pier, us four girls were already sitting on the tender boat. And we were still laughing. So the afternoon was essentially a disaster, and Jenny and I were grateful that we'd stuck to our guns and only gone through the ship for our other tours... but still - we had a marvelous time, and will talk about that afternoon for a long time to come.

Okay - I have to go. Still in my pajamas here, and we're leaving VERY SOON!

Ahhhh! Talk to you all again when I'm in NY with the COOKS!

xo Tammy

PS. OH! And that night, when we were counting up the money Francisco had given us so we could all take back our money, we found $25 missing. The scoundral had taken it before he gave our money back! We're stupid for not counting it of course, but it was all in a roll like when we gave it to him, and we were all in such a hurry! No wonder he wouldn't take any more money than the $40. He was feeling GUILTY! hahah :)

PPS. Sorry - haven't had time to proof read - hope it's okay!

I will post again when....

2010-04-17T02:23:00.002+10:00

Someone sends me a picture of Bethany's ring, and tell's me what is going on with her wedding...

Seriously! Older sister here - would really like some information! LOL :)

xo Tammy

PS. Am back safely in Provo. 2 sleeps till NY. My second day in Cabo was AWESOME. Lots of funny stories to tell about it as soon as my blackmail has been successful...

PPS. Mum - got your clinique email, but it was too late for Mexico :( I've got the list though, and am shopping today... leave it with me :)

PPPS. HAPPY BIRTHDAY B&O! I really wish I could be there for your party - take lots of photos for me :)

Editorial Correction:

2010-04-14T00:13:00.002+10:00

From now on, please read 'Hosea' as 'Jose'.... lolololol! Thanks Brecken :) This will be like the time I learned that Quesidilla was prononced 'Key-say-di-ah' rather them 'Ques-a-dil-la'.... a real turning point in my Mexican education :)

Love you all! Am off to parasailing... should I be nervous?!

xo Tammy

PS. And this post does not excuse those of you who haven't commented on the previous post from commenting on the previous post ;)

PPS. Mum - loved the 'Jose' the third comment :)

PPPS. Family, you should know that every comment you make on my blog is money towards your present... the twins are VERY behind...

I'm in Mexico Baby!

2010-04-13T10:34:00.006+10:00

Okay fans, I had planned to write again in a couple of days, but I just HAD to get online and tell you about my fabulous, fabulous day today! You know, when I was planning this holiday, I was really just thinking about the friends I wanted to catch up with. The friends part has been (and will be, B & J) SO SO wonderful, but by accident, I have also planned myself a fantastic and exotic holiday - go me! I really didn't think that much about the cruise before we left, but guess what, I'm actually in Mexico! MEXICO PEOPLE! How cool is THAT?! AND I really like it here :) Cabo San Lucas is beautiful - in a really stark kind of a way. It's all white desert, hills and cliffs, but surrounding the most GORGEOUS blue blue blue sea. The hills have really picturesque resorts and homes up and down them - it actually looks a little the way I imagine the Mediterranean to look. So THAT was exciting to see when I woke up this morning ;) (Not that I could see it from my cabin, since the window is FAKE... I had to walk up to the deck, but never mind, it was still exciting...)

So the day started at 6:15am when the alarm went off. By 7:45am, Peta, Jenny and I were waiting in the Cole Porter Lounge with a bunch of other people who had early excursions. We listened to some really bad jokes (but funny - since you all know how much I LOVE bad jokes!) from one of the cruise directors, and then we were ushered downstairs and onto the first tender boat for the day - which ferried us all in to shore. The harbour is hopping! Such a fun fun resort town. Clean and friendly and warm. Pelicans EVERYWHERE, and lots of Sea Lions and friendly locals. Great Mexican music playing everywhere. Obviously it's all set up for the tourists - but us tourists sure do love it! The whole place seemed to ooze that laid back holiday atmosphere, with exotic spices on the breeze. Wonderful :)

We went through the customs first, which does not include passport - or even photo ID - checks, but which DOES consist of them throwing any fruit you have in your bags into the bin :) Then we went to a tour operation centre just down the street, where we were put on a bus (with the people doing the horse riding tours), and we were off on a 45 minute drive through the countryside out to a seaside ranch. Our bus driver's name was Hosea (which I thought was wonderful), and he was very friendly. He started off by telling us that he'd be driving very slowly, because there were a lot of roadworks, and the road was very narrow and followed cliffs for some of the way. But not to worry, because he knew the road really well and would be driving slowly... Right then :) Peta and I weren't too bothered by Hosea's announcement (he said he'd drive slow, right?), but Jenny, in a rare stroke of oldest sister/friend syndrome, insisted that we all put our seat belts on.

The drive through the countryside was really interesting. It's funny trying to sum a place up with so little information, but I think the thing that struck me the most was just the contradictions. On the one hand, there are expensive, fancy and upmarket homes, businesses and estates - super nice. And then right across the street you see slums and homes built out of building scraps (aka, PNG style). So depending which side of the bus you happen to be looking out of, the country will other seem either first or third world.

Then we got out of the city and into the outback - that was really interesting too. I'm used to thinking of 'desert' as the kind of desert you see in Southern Utah - since that's really the only kind of real desert I've ever seen. That desert stretches forever, and is empty of everything but stunning rock and cliff formations in red rock.

This desert was all white and sandy, and was really densely and thickly populated by Cactus and shrubby scrub (lots of Joshua trees that look dead but are probably just still hibernating...) Really not the kind of wilderness you could cross without spending several hours clearing every metre! The landscape was really hilly too. And then of course, you could see the ocean, and it was beautiful! Blue blue blue with lovely sandy beaches.

When we got to the ranch, they had us all climb out, have a quick toilet break (which was good, because P & J have tiny bladders and they can't go more then 5 minutes without a bathroom - I swear!), and then they took us over to the four wheelers. One of the reasons we picked this tour was because everybody drives their own four wheeler - so no one has to be a passenger. Fun right? Wrong. The cruise ship sinking was SO the wrong thing for us all to be worrying about! It's the four-wheelers that were REALLY endangering my life! I knew I was in trouble with Jonathan the guide started explaining to us how to change gears with our feet... When he saw my panicked look he very kindly rolled his eyes, lowered his voice, leaned in to me and hurriedly whispered "start in 1, use 2 for up and down hills, and use 3 and four the rest of the time depending how fast we go.... you might even need 5 if you go really fast" (but he looked a little uncertain of my abilities to get to 5 - and I was right there with him!).

They gave us bandanna's, goggles and helmets (the cute helmets you see on Italians riding mopeds) - so our faces were pretty much completely covered and protected from the dust we'd be swirling up around us. And then, just like that, everyone got on and started driving off in single file. Ahhhhhh! Surely that wasn't it?! Surely they need to test us, or tell us how to drive properly?! Nope! Not here in Mexico. They just let you go. *gulp*

We were all in a single file behind Jonathan, and I was about in the middle - with Peta in front of me and Jenny behind. About 15 minutes into the ride, when we slowed down at one point, Peta yelled back to me "Jenny's really struggling! She's not even keeping up with us! She's way back behind you!" I yelled back that I was pretty sure that Jenny was absolutely fine, and just keeping her distance for her own good since she could see my driving and Peta couldn't :) Let's just say I spent that first 15 minutes bunny-hopping through the Mexican desert and narrowly missing cactus as I swerved uncontrollably from left to right on the sandy track.

But by about the 25 minute mark, I suddenly got it down. And then, boy was it FUN! Mum, remember the time you first went to the USA and went sledding? And just how much 'fun' it was? Well this was exactly like that! I was screaming to both Peta and Jenny about how great this was, but I realized that no body could hear anything over the roar of the motors, so I just started screaming to myself for my own fun: Ahhhh! I'm in MEXICO! ahhhhh! woo-hoo! I'm four-wheeling in Mexico! *delighted laughter*. It was a real rush :)

The ride was about 1.5 hours all up. And they certainly don't seem to worry too much about safety (once they've put helmets on us) because we were going up and down MASSIVE and STEEP hills on these quad bikes. We drove along cliff tops, along the beach - right by the ocean - and along dry river washes. It was amazing. If I hadn't had my 'adventure girl in Mexico' hat on, I probably would have been terrified. But I just kept going, and by the end of the ride I was waiting for Peta to go up each steep hill before I'd even start - because I wanted to go much much faster than she was going :)

I think there's a little evil-keneval in me after all... :)

Anyway, once we got back to the ranch they put us all back on the bus and drove us back into town. We had about half an hour before our next tour started, so we went to a fabulous restaurant ("the Tequila Bar") for a quick bite. The guy who seated us promised us quick food (since we said we only had 20 minutes), and a cute waiter. And the waiter was free :) Most of you know how much I LOVE Mexican food, right? Well, get this: Mexican food IN Mexico? WAY WAY better! ahhhh. This food was to die for. Even though we had to wolf it down!

From there we ran to the second tour, which started down at the docks. There were about 14 of us in the group, and the lady who took our tickets introduced us to our tour guide: Hosea! hhahahah! Different guy - same name :) This Hosea was completely wonderful. He was really funny and a great guide. He loaded us into a 24foot Zodiac, which is an inflatable motor boat. He stood at his post in the middle, and we sat on the inflated edges of the boat, and held on for dear life :) We had life vests on, but he went REALLY fast, and we were rising up the waves and crashing back down again. Once we got over the whole "wait, you want us to sit on the edge of the boat? but we'll fall out!" thing, it was really really fun.

First he took us out to the arch at Lands End (google it), and we drove past Lovers Beach (again, google it), which is famous for being the only beach in the world to touch 2 oceans at the same time. Then we headed off for the snorkeling. It took about half an hour to get out to the first bay, where Hosea gave us all snorkels, fins and goggles, and threw us overboard :) Well, the others all hopped in and started swimming around on their own. But when I sat on the edge and hesitated for a bit, he threw me in :) Oh well, I had to get in somehow :) We had a great time at this secluded beach and spent about 45 minutes snorkeling up a storm. Then we got back in the boat and headed off for the second bay. This bay had some pretty coral reefs, and Hosea got in the water this time and swam around with us all.

At one point, he dove down and came back up with a sea urchin. I was near he when he surfaced, and he gestured for me to hold out my hand so he could put it in my hand. Again, most of you know that I avoid contact with living, non-human creatures. But since I was being 'Adventure Tammy in Mexico' today, I put out my hand. It was prickly, and I didn't like it. But then, it started sucking and attaching itself onto my hand, and then I REALLY didn't like it! hahahaha! That's an understatement actually. I totally freaked out and threw the thing back at him with a scream! lol :) He died laughing. The horrible man had known that would happen, and thought it was hilarious! But don't worry, he made me up to me by letting me watch him do it to half the other people on the tour :) totally classic :) Jenny really freaked out "get it off, get it off, get it off!" - so I felt vindicated.

Hosea also swam down and came back up with a puffer fish in his hand which he kept under the water and let us all touch. It was kind of cool - like a big squeegee toy or something :) after another half an hour there or so, we took the boat ride back again. I sat on the bench at the back of the boat this time (since other people were in my spot on the edge of the boat), and so I closed my eye and threw my head back, crossed my legs and just let the wind and the sun do what they do best. And all the while we were riding at crazy speeds (Hosea had let us swim too long so he was in a hurry to get us back) up and over the waves with crazy crashes and bumps in the boat. I loved it - what a happy afternoon. I tried to store up a memory so I wouldn't ever forget it. (And now I've written it in my blog - which should help - lol).

Once back on the ship, we each showered (because we were filthy and all oceany - eww!), and then were went and had dinner in the dinning room. Yummy as usual, and fun to chat with people. This evening has been good too. After dinner, Jenny and I went and checked out the Kareokee Lounge, where I swallowed some fear and sang a song to the 12 people in there - hahaha! It's funny how nervous I was, but it felt good to be doing things that are scary, so I was glad to do it. Then we went and met up with some people for the hypnotist show in the main theatre. I'm still a skeptic about the whole hypnosis thing, but some of the people we know on the boat got up, and I laughed out loud several times. Though, like I said, I'm still not sure what to make of the whole 'thing'. After that, Peta, Jenny, Brandon (from yesterday's post) and I went and hang out in the Kareokee lounge for another half an hour, before heading up to the big deck party that was happening tonight. Nothing starts until late here, and I keep missing everything because I keep going to bed - lol! But since it was 11pm, and the deck party/dance was starting, Jenny and I headed up there. Everyone was waiting for the first people to actually go onto the dance floor and dance, and since I'd already done scary things all day, we went and danced with the first few people, and before long it was hopping party. So much fun! I haven't danced like that for a long time, and it felt GOOD :)

Well, it's 12:30am now, and I thought I'd better come and just finish off this post (I started it before dinner tonight) so you'd all have something to read. Make sure you comment - I LOVE to read them them, and don't worry, I read fast, so it doesn't cost tooooo much! haha!

We have the alarm set for 6am tomorrow morning, because we've got the parasailing booked in for first thing in the morning. Jenny and I have come to the realization that we may not have thought the whole thing through very well, and that parasailing might actually be TERRIFYING! But hey, if I managed to four-wheel this morning, parasailing should be a breeze! (get it, a breeze? parasailing?... never mind).

We'll be done with the parasailing by 9:30am, but then we're thinking we'll shop and explore the main streets of town for a few hours before meeting up with some friends and renting jetskiis for the afternoon. I've never jetskied before... I'm just kind of hoping that there are no gear shifts to be made by me.... haha!

Okay, off to bed (or actually, I can hear the music coming from the piano bar sing-a-long... that could be fun)...

Love to you all - and apologies if the above doesn't make sense. I'm typing like crazy and proof-reading not at all!

xo Tammy

PS. HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO JONATHON! I love you Jonny, and hope you're having a really really great day. xo

I'm Not Dead Yet!

2010-04-12T08:26:00.002+10:00

(That title should definitely be read with your best Monty Python accent....)

So I'm here, and I'm alive. By here, I mean about 100nm north of Cabo along the Baja Coast (where ever the heck THAT is), and by alive, I mean not at the bottom of the ocean. *vyew* WHAT a relief :)

I'm paying $25 for an hour for this internet time so that I can get the word out and post a little about the cruise so far. It's not cheap, but that's what I call 'giving back to my fans'. You're all very worth it, AND you're welcome :) (That was for you Bethy - lol!).

Okay. So the Carnival Elation. It's a very nice boat and I'm having a fabulous time. We left yesterday late afternoon, and the boat didn't sink. We sailed all night, and the boat didn't sink. It's 3:30pm this afternoon, and the boat still hasn't sunk. (Don't worry, I just knocked on wood), so so far, the cruise could not be going better! :) On a slightly more serious note, I actually haven't been stressed or nervous at all, so I've been really relieved. On top of that, the weather could not be more pefect, and the ocean has been breathtakingly beautiful - I keep finding myself back out on one of the decks again because I'm just enjoying gazing at it all. I've been thinking about Jessica Watson (since I love to read her blog) and I still have no idea how she does THAT, but for my couple of days at sea, I find myself really content. Blue gorgeous ocean, blue wide and wonderful skys and perfect sun with just the tiniest chill in the air (except that the chill is dissapearing quickly as we head south - that's been the only tiny bit of a let down - it's getting hot!).

The food has been really yummy, but not 'have to eat absolutely everything' which was actually a big relief. It means I won't gain the 5 pounds I felt myself gaining as I gazed at everything the first time I walked into one of the buffet rooms :)

Today is Sunday, so I've been trying to keep things a little calmer and 'Sunday' like today. It's been a lovely day. I slept in, got up, showered (rooms are really nice and spaciuos actually, and so are the bathrooms, so that's great), and spent most of the day so far talking with my friends Jenny and Brandon Lang (I think Justin and maybe Brecken and Erika are the only ones who'll remember Brandon, but he was a film major at BYU with me and we often did group projects together. Turns out he's on this cruise! I walked into the safety drill on the first day and heard a 'Tammy Munro! What are YOU doing here?!' so it's been really fun to catch up with him. And actually, you should know that while we're on the safety drill, I thought it was very efficient and informative. I know EVERYTHING I have to do if the boat sinks... I just can't remember how to get to the lifeboat I'm supposed to get to.. there were lots of stairs and corridors, and I was talking to the people around me, so I kind of forget how to get there! Jenny reckons she remembers though, so I never leave her side...).

Anyway Tomorrow and Tuesday are our 'days in Cabo'. We're very excited. Jenny and I have finally picked our excursions - we just have to book them, which we'll do shortly. Tomorrow we're planning to go ATV-ing in the Mexican desert in the morning, followed by an afternoon on a catermaran which will take us out to Lands end, and lovers beach and the sea-lion colony. And we'll have the opportunity to go snorkling in a few different bays and reefs. Then Wednesday, we're going (get this) PARASAILING! wooo-hooooo! I'm a tiny bit terrified, but very excited! I really wanted to do something adventurous on this trip, and I figure spending several minutes 600ft above the Mexican coastline harnessed to Jenny and a parashoot should cover it. Awesome, huh?! Besides, this way, for the rest of my life, I find ways to insert the following sentence into conversations: Actually, this reminds me of the time I went parasailing in Cabo... hahaha!

Okay, I'd better go. I've used up the first 30 minutes of my hour (not just on this post - I also had to check my bank account and read my comments - haha!). I will probably leave it a couple of days and then try and post again.

Love you all tons and tons!
xo Tammy

PS. Oh, yeah, and if I die, mum gets to chose who gets what - so just let her know if there's anything you'd like... :)

In case of iceberg or tidal wave...

2010-04-10T18:54:00.002+10:00

This will have to be very quick I'm afraid, but I wanted to let you all know that I'm still here and that all is well.... for now!

I'm leaving on the cruise first thing in the morning, and baring iceberg or tidalwave, I'll be back on Thursday next week :) You probably won't hear from me much on the cruise, although I may pay $40/minute to post a quick update and let you all know that I'm still alive.... since I know how nervous the idea of a cruise makes you all....

.... really hope I make it....

Love you all! Having a great time :)

xo Tammy

PS. Those of you who mock my fears should probably check this out...

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday

2010-04-08T11:26:00.003+10:00

(I hope you read that title with the 'Tom Hanks quoting The Godfather in You've Got Mail' accent...)

It seems I owe my blogging fans a rundown of the last three days. Again, no photos - sorry! Partly because I keep forgetting to take them, and partly because when I do take them, I still look tired :) And partly because it takes ages to upload them from my camera to the computer... haha! yeah, I know, excuses excuses! But here goes the report on the week to date.

MONDAY
Sorry, can't really remember it - it was AGES ago... :) We got up and went to the gym around the corner. I know - funny, huh?! Peta's next door neighbour Jessica had some guest passes, so I have a free week's membership there now (although the paper pass went through the wash yesterday, so that could be a problem - but I digress!). I got on the treadmill (which I haven't done in years - at home I've been using a cross trainer). Anyway, I went 2.5 miles in 20 minutes (I hope you're all really impressed by that, by the way, because I was! Then I went and did some exercisers with weights and the exercise ball. It was nice to get a work out! Then we went home and got showered and changed etc.

By this time it was early afternoon (we may have slept in a little) so we decided to go and eat at Mimi's Cafe - which is one of my all time favourite places to eat! Not only do they make the best Caesar Salad in the world, but they also make the best (buyable) dessert on the planet: Chocolate Pecan Pie!

At least, they used to! Can you believe they no longer have it on the menu?! What's with that?! Does nothing stay the same?! Can I trust ANYTHING anymore?! :) It was sad, but not the end of the world. What WAS sad was realizing that the Caesar salad was fine, but not all that. I think I've been spoiled by the addition of egg and bacon that the Aussie Caesar Salads have :) But still good - and I had a yummy yummy pistachio salmon with artichoke raggu, so the lunch was salvaged.

After lunch we did a little shopping, and then Peta and Jenny dropped me at my friend Kalo's house. Kalo and I had SUCH a fun time catching up. She's an absolute scream and we had a blast. We caught up at her house for a while (family: remind me to tell you about the Valentines Day Dinner tradition that we will be starting next year). Then we went to FHE at her Tongan Singles ward. That's about 200 tongan YSA and one aussie palangi :) It was a lot of fun though. Oh, and I should add that it was SNOWING! ahhh! SOOO beautiful (and freezing) and still outside. From FHE, we went out for dessert, and talked for another couple of hours. I'm trying to convince her she needs to visit me at home :) Finally she dropped me home, where Peta, Jenny and I chatted for another hour before I crashed into a deep sleep....

TUESDAY
Tuesday was my Peta and Jenny all day, day. We got up and went to the gym (again - very funny, right?!). Decided to do intervals training on the treadmill, so I wouldn't have to run as fast for as long (because I was very tired - haha!). Then we went as saw 'Dear John' at the dollar theatre. Not too bad a movie :) P & J cried the whole time. I did not :) After the movie, we went and got a massage. Ahhh! SO good :) Then we went to the mall, and shopped and had dinner before seeing 'The Last Song' at the theatre. It was TERRIBLE! Terrible people! Bad direction, terrible acting. Don't bother :) We'd had such a fun day that we really couldn't stand the thought of it finishing on such a low. So we went to see 'The Young Victoria' - which has only just come out here. A much better way to finish the day :)

WEDNESDAY
Today we did not go to the gym (shock!), but I met my friend Erika for lunch at BYU - we talked for a good couple of hours and I really enjoyed it. She's such a great person to talk too - funny and intelligent and a good friend. We're both really glad blogs exist - as they're pretty much the reason we've been able to keep in touch over the last 3 years. Erika's doing her masters degree at BYU and teaching classes. All the kinds of things I would have loved to do and probably would have ended up trying to do if I'd gotten married and stayed here, so it was fun to hear about everything she's up to.

I left Erika at about 2:30pm, and headed off to pick up some things at the BYU bookstore etc. Then Derrick called, and I ended up heading out to an early dinner with him at a local mexican restaurant - where I had the fabulous mexican salad! yum yum yum! (It's a lot like cafe rio, and Derrick actually thinks it's better... he's wrong about that, but it was still fun to hang out for a bit).

I'm currently back at Peta's typing this blog entry like a mad-woman, because in a few minutes I'm heading off to the Parkin's for dessert and a good catch up. Jeff was one of my professors here at BYU, and he and his wonderful wife are so much fun to talk and laugh with. I'm looking forward to it.

Okay people! That's it for now - have to run. I'm pretty sure I'm going to need another holiday to get over THIS holiday when I get home! I'm exhausted :) But as I've said before - it's so nice to be catching up with everyone. I think I'm getting addicted to 'having friends'... maybe I'll have to make some new friends when I get back home... lol!

Love you all lots and lots and lots and lots!
xo Tammy

Peta, Derrick, Jenny, Brodi, Jessica & Conference

2010-04-05T12:49:00.002+10:00

I'm sorry - I've been slack with my posts the last few days - but I've been pretty busy :) I don't have too much time on the computer at the moment now either, but I'll try and quickly give you the outline (will have to supply photos and anecdotes later!).

THURSDAY
Left Emily's house at 4am in the morning (triple yawn!), and caught the plane to Utah. Well, first it went to San Fran, where I wandered the airport for 4 hours before boarding the plane to Utah! The flight was half an hour late, but Peta was a patient and good soul, and waited for me to appear :) We had planned to go and meet Brodi and Mike at Temple Square to get our conference tickets, but with the plane being late, and with us loosing our parking ticket (which meant the grumpy guys at the booths wouldn't let us out of the carpark - long sad story that ended with us paying $28 and having to wait 20 minutes while they filled out a lengthy and surely redundant form) - we were too late and the ticket office was closed by the time we got to SLC. Sad!
But it was lovely to see Peta, and we had lovely time doing dinner and a movie. When I also ended up catching up with Derrick late Thursday night, which was really wonderful - so excellent to see these fabulous friends again, and I love that with everyone so far it's felt as if I just saw them last week - funny how that happens!

FRIDAY
Peta, had to work, so Derrick picked me up at 11am, and we went to one of his classes on campus (didn't want to be a bad influence and let him skip it - lol!). I loved it. loved it, loved it. It was just an American Constitution class, but I really enjoyed it - I miss school so much! It really is my favourite environment to be in. It was wonderful to drive around provo and BYU a bit with Derrick too. You'll all be really glad to know that I didn't have the emotional breakdown I was slightly concerned about having :) He had a geology class after that, but I sent him off to that alone while I went to the BYU bookstore and caught up with an old professor. I'll have to catch a couple of the others next week too, because it would be great to see them. I really have a special spot in my heart for the campus and the life I had at BYU - I feel very grateful and very blessed to think I was given the opportunity to go to BYU. As bitter as everything felt when I left here, the majority of the five years here were wonderful wonderful, and I was really lucky to be able to come.

After his classes, we shot up to SLC to meet Brodi and Mike at the conference centre and get tickets for conference. Sidenote: really like Mike, and Brodi looks very happy. Once we'd got the tickets and hung out with them for a while, D and I headed over to his brother's house in SLC to hang out for a while and wait for the rest of his family to arrive - they were all coming in for the conference weekend. We ended up hanging out with them until about 11pm that night, and had a great time. I'd met some of his family before, and it was nice to meet and hang out with the rest of them. He has a very cute nephew (though I have to say that Jordan is EVEN cuter :)).

SATURDAY
Jenny's plane got in very late Friday night so she was feeling jetlagged, and our plan to make it to SLC for the Saturday morning session didn't quite pan out. But we did make it up to SLC for lunch with our friends Kent and Ginger (who were in our ward when we all lived at Carriage Cove. They did SUCH a beautiful fancy lunch for us, and it was so exciting to see their beautiful new townhouse and catch up with them. They've just bought a baby grand piano, and I had a hard time dragging myself away from it to eat - I want one! really, really bad! :) Then we watched the Saturday afternoon session at their house.

After that, Peta and Jenny dropped me to Jessica's house in East Salt Lake. Had such a fantastic time hanging out with Jessica and her Mom (her dad was around after the priesthood session too!). I always loved spending time at their house when I was at BYU, and so it was another trip highlight. Jess is wonderful and just the same - really hoping she makes it out to Australia soon (hint hint! hehe!). The three of us made a bunch of homemade pizzas (15 I think?!) for people in their ward who are sick at the moment. We had a dough making assembly line in place and made a fabulous and giant mess - which just made the whole thing a lot more fun :) It had the added bonus of also being an activity I can use to help pass of some of that 'Good Works' personal progress! :) Once we'd finished the pizza making (which was exhausting but very successful), we watched an episode of Phsyc (is that what it's called Jessica?!) which was really funny, and ate sweedish fish and timtams :) Jess also gave me a rundown on the whole 'egg cracking competition' her family hold every easter - it's an excellent tradition, and I'm looking forward to making my family do it next year :) We went to bed at about 11:30 or so. Jessica gave me her bed in her room and went to sleep in the spare room downstairs! I felt really bad about that! But it was really really good of them - they were wonderful hosts and had a really really fun time.

SUNDAY
I had to get up a little early to get ready for Peta and Jenny to pick me up from Jessica's at 8am on our way down to the conference session for the Sunday morning session of General Conference. We had tickets to both sessions of conference today - and I had such a wonderful wonderful wonderful time. We all know what a wonderful trip I've had, and how lucky I've been to see amazing people and do fabulous things, but I think today, sitting in Conference and just soaking up the Spirit - I hit the highlight of my trip to date. We were there for Music and the Spoken Word, and I felt so moved - I love love that choir. If I ever, for any reason found myself living in SLC, I'd go and jump through whatever hoops I needed to for a shot at joining that choir. It's a deep down dream of mine - although I never actually expect to fulfill it :) I tell myself it's okay, because I'll just join the choirs of angels on the other side when I get there - and surely that will be even better! Their final song in Music and the Spoken word was the Halleluijah Chorus. Just Magnificent. They had asked us prior to the start that we didn't stand, since 22,000 people standing would definitely ruin the live broadcast, but it wasn't easy to stay in my seat.

Then the conference started. I felt so humbled and so grateful to be there. I don't think you have to 'be there' to feel the spirit, and I'm grateful for modern media that lets us watch it at home. But there's still something special about being there with so many people, and see and hearing the prophets and apostles speaking to us all. I loved both sessions today, but my favourite was the second session - a couple of the talks in particular really touched me, and I was a little emotional at times. The intermediate hymn this afternoon was 'I know that my Redeemer Lives'. I was so excited to stand up and sing it with everybody. 22,000 people singing hymns together is incredible. I made it loudly and proudly through the first verse, and didn't manage to sing any further - I couldn't stop crying. The words were so beautiful and really touched on the thoughts and messages of the previous couple of speakers and the tenderness I was already feeling.

So yes - conference was absolutley fabulous. I'm still feeling a little emotional actually :) But excited at all of the new things I can be working on and improving over the next 6 months. The last several years I've found myself more and more keenly looking forward to April and October each year. I hope everyone has had the chance to see it, or will see in next week - it's absolutely not to be missed.

After conference this afternoon, we went straight to Sandy, where Peta, Jenny and I went to a dinner at one of the chapels there that Mike's Tongan family were holding for Brodi. It was a really nice evening, and we enjoyed. I felt right at home too, becuase it felt exactly like every ward activity we've had over the last couple of years :)

Well, that brings me to now. I'm very tired, and looking to get an early night tonight! I've looked terrible in the photos I've taken the last several days - I'm just so tired all the time :) Actually, I think I'm still a little bit jetlagged if that's possible! I struggle to make it through every day, and then suddenly wake up at 9pm each night - all ready to go out and do something! I should have taken sleeping tablets on the plane! (Don't worry, I've already bought some ready for the flight home! Jet lag - I've suddenly discovered - is dreadful!).

Okay, I'll check out for now. Love you all lots and lots, and am really missing my family tonight. I'm having a wonderful time, but wouldn't mind a family dinner and couple of hours of chit chat about conference and the neices and nephews. It's a shame we can't teleport! Then I could see friends here whenever I wanted, and pop home whenever I wanted too :)

Please keep your comments coming - I love to read them :)
xoxoxoxoxoxoxo
Tammy.

Dear Emily,

2010-04-02T01:00:00.001+10:00

As this post appears (since I'm going to try and use the fancy 'time release' posting thing), I should be on my way to Utah.

I just wanted to say a huge THANKYOU for everything you've done for and with me over the last week. It's been so so wonderful to spend this time with you and I've loved every minute of it. You've been such a wonderful host, and have thought of everything! As excited as I am to move on the next part of my holiday, there's a big part of me that would be happy just to hang with you for another couple of weeks, and I'm super sad to have to say goodbye.

I've loved getting to see where you live, and what your life is like. I love this part of the world, and you've done a beautiful job making your house a home. Your husband is a good and kind man who obviously loves you, and you have such a beautiful little boy. Despite the imaginary 'bad mother' moments - it's clear that you're a wonderful wonderful mother to him :)

I can't wait to have you come visit Australia in a couple of years (don't think I'll forget about our plan girl - so you'd better start the money jar!), and I'm looking forward to many more emails and photos as the years tick over.

I'm so glad I came to stay! So thank you for being a wonderful and gracious host, a fabulous tour guide, a whole barrel of fun and laughter, and a true friend of my heart.

Love you girl!
xo Tammy

A sad but true fact (and another wonderful day)

2010-04-01T07:37:00.011+10:00

This is the long awaited entry about our fabulous day trip to Forks! But here's the thing: Forks, is a total dive. If you ever have the opportunity to visit Forks, don’t. Trust me! :)

We had kind of assumed that Forks would be this cute and quaint little town, and would be a fun bit of a lark to visit. But not only did it quickly become evident that they’ve never filmed ANY of the movies in Forks, but also that Stephanie Myers has never BEEN to Forks. If she had, she most definitely would NOT have set her books in this poor little backwater place!

This point aside, however, we had a really great day. The funny thing about Forks is that it’s not ‘on the way’ to anywhere. No-one ‘drives through’ Forks, because it’s AGES away, and completely in the middle of nowhere. This means that everyone there has gone there on purpose. Shame! (insert your little kiddy hand action right there Abby!). It took us three (very long) hours to get to Forks, and then three (very very long) hours to get home again. Luckily, the drive was absolutely stunning – and since a very large part of our reason for visiting was to see the gorgeous setting of the Olympic Peninsular, this part of the trip total surpassed our expectations.

One the way, we decided to stop at Hurricane Ridge – where the views are supposed to be beautiful, and there is lots of snow! We’ve meant to hit this place a few times now, but I keep sleeping in! So today was the day. Unfortunately (and contrary to what was posted on the internet before we left the house), the road was closed! So for our half hour detour, we were only able to get halfway up the mountain, and didn’t quite manage to get to the snow *sob*. On the upside, we got some pretty pictures :) I should warn you now that the pictures of beautiful scenery in this post don’t BEGIN to even hint at just how gorgeous this part of the world is – it’s completely breathtaking. My other favourite part of the drive was about half an hour spent driving along the edge of Lake Cresent. It was soooo pretty!

I felt quite sorry for baby P, because he ended up spending over 6 hours in the carseat! But he was a wonderful sport about it for the most part :)

But I digress! One small inconsistency between the book and the real world is the idea that Port Angeles is close to Forks. It's about 2 hours away from Forks! And Port Angeles was ugly! We stopped there briefly for a toilet break, and then we couldn't get out of there fast enough! Two hours later, right as we reached our 'yes, the scenery's pretty, but enough is enough!' point, we arrived in Forks.

We jumped out of the car to quickly get a photo taken with the welcome sign. We were excited to FINALLY be there, and in the 30 seconds that we were posing with the sign, four other cars pulled up for photos. The other cars were all full of mothers and teenage daughters. This was a Wednesday though, so I was a little surprised that it was so busy!

As we drove down the 'main street' of Forks, our little hearts sank. We needed to stop somewhere for lunch, and there was nowhere we really wanted to stop! I know I can be a little snobby about germs and only wanting to go to 'nice-ish' places, but I think everyone would have had trouble with this decision! Eventually we chose (out of the three available places to eat), and ate as quickly as possible. lol! My seat sank about 8 inches when I sat in it, but we made it out alive, and lunch could have been worse...

We decided to park the car along main street and just walk everywhere. Things were pretty close, and it's easier for baby P to be in a stroller than to be in and out of the car every five minutes. It was actually really nice to walk, and once we got off main street, and into the few blocks of residential housing, I even liked Forks just a tiny bit :) It was FREEZING cold though! And it was rainy. But that's okay - I love the rain, and it was the only 'authentic' thing about Forks, so I could hardly complain :)

First stop: Forks highschool. Looks nothing like the movie, but had the same sign :) Second stop was the Newton Store. Which was just the local hardware store, with a paper sign that said 'Newton' above the 'True Value bit of the sign... (you'll have to look closely to see it - lol!)

The town also has a 'tour bus' you can actually take (for $39/adult), but our tour was free, and based on the pages Emily had printed off the internet :)

The bus leaves from a store called 'Dazzled by Twilight' which is HUGE and FULL of anything and EVERYTHING you could possibly think of! I actually thought this store was done really well.... overdone really... but overdone really well! It was the funniest kind of creepy and very entertaining :)

We were in the store for a really really long time, because it started pouring with rain, and we were pretty much trapped! So we had time for a really good look around. It was during this time that I watched a little bit of the documentary 'The Real Forks' (on sale for $34.50) that was playing on a TV in one section of the store. This is when my heart softened towards the people of Forks just a little :) I had been feeling pretty duped by this horrible place, but it turns out that it's not their fault :) People just started turning up, and wanting to see things, and the people of the town had no idea what they were talking about! So they bought the books, read them, and then (because of all the people who kept turning up), they seemed to feel obliged to figure out where everything was!

It wasn't easy for them, but they put their heads together, and set about trying to find 'the best options'. For example, there's a lovely lady in town who owns the Bed and Breakfast there, and the townfolk approached her with "We think we'd better make your house the Cullen House. The book describes it as an old mostly white farm house, and yours is the largest (and only) white old farm house around. It's not surrounded by trees, and it's not out of town, and it doesn't have glass on one side, and it doesn't look at all like the Cullen's house, but we think it's the best option".... and so on it went. I thought the documentary was fabulous - I almost bought a copy.

Once we got out of the store, we walked over to "the Cullen's House".... as you can see, it's by far the nicest house in town. It's an oldish, mostly white and a farm house come bed and breakfast - just as it was described in the documentary (and nothing like it was described in the book). My favourite touch was the fact that they added the words "Cullen" to the letterbox....

We went to the Police station next, to see 'Where Charlie Works', but there really isn't anything to see (as all of the mothers and daughters getting in and out of suburbans quickly seemed to realize). There's just the town hall, which houses the police station, the court house, the town hall proper, and the town jail. (There's an attached barbed wire fence yard for the inmates to exercise in)... so yeah, we didn't see Charlie. I did wonder if they invite the inmates to the town functions hosted in the town hall though....

Next stop was the hospital. Naturally, it's a very small hospital. But they DID have a Dr. Cullen parking space. It shared a wall with the hose dispenser which I thought that made the sign ever better :)

After the hospital, we got back in the car and drove to the Forks Chamber of Commerce that has Bella's truck (aka, a red truck that looks nothing like Bella's Truck), parked outside. I loved the Chamber of Commerce. It was a small room staffed by two full time experts on the twilight locations within the town. You could study maps, buy Twilight memorabilia, and get your photo taken with a lifesized cut-out of Edward. I'm not sure what other Commerce goes on in there, but the Twilight Commerce was certainly thriving :)

And then our final stop was La Push. It's about a 30 minute drive further away from Emily's house to get to La Push, but again, it was a beautiful drive, and the scenery made it worth it. We stopped about half way to take a picture of the sign marking the 'treaty line'. We thought it was a great sign, and served the fabulous multi-function of also advertising Coca-Cola on the other side.

We'd be driving for about the half an hour, and the signs were indicating that we'd passed Third Beach, and Second Beach, and were approaching First Beach. We were still smack bang in the middle of tall green trees and were wondering where on earth the ocean was when we suddenly rounded a corner, and there it was! It was stunning! The most gorgeous rough stretch of ocean. Rocks, massive logs, tree studded rock islands and rough and heavy surges of waves! The sidenote here of course is that they shot the movie at a different (calmer) beach. But never mind. The whole trip was worth it just to see this magnificent stretch of coastline.

Again, the photos don't even BEGIN to do the place justice. We both LOVED the beach! The sad thing was that we were only there for about 10 minutes, because it was FREEZING and we didn't want to DIE of FROSTBITE! But it was wonderful :)

So there you have it! Our day in Forks. We've only posted 'nice' photos of Forks, but we would probably NOT advise that you visit. (There was also the slight 'getting lost' mishap on the way home that cost us another 1/2 an hour of driving... but on the upside, Emily now knows how to use the GPS function on her phone, so all's well that ends well!).

We had another really wonderful day, and were completely exhausted by the time we got home. When we finally got home, we ate leftovers and watched New Moon - which bore no resemblance to anything we saw that day, but was fun all the same :)

Thanks for doing all the driving and for all the laughs Emily! You rock :)
xo Tammy

A day in which we find the perfect dress & I almost break my arm....

2010-03-31T12:29:00.000+10:00

But since Emily has already written about it, I'd suggest you'd just go and read about it on her blog :)

Love you all!
xo Tammy

Travelling.... good for your health?

2010-03-30T04:16:00.003+10:00

Okay, so I've been having a fabulous time (we all know that), and have been eating lots of yummy food. I have been doing a fair bit of walking too.... and there were those hills and stairs in Seattle.... but there's also a fair bit of chocolate floating around at the moment too.... I was hoping the two were averaging out, but was a little concerned that maybe they weren't :) So I asked Emily if she had scales I could weigh myself on today.

She and C just use the Wii Fit to weigh in, so we decided to set me up a quick profile so that I could see if more walking or less chocolate were perhaps in order... The downside of weighing yourself on the Wii is that the Wii likes to pass judgement, and in an annoyingly sanctimonious and synthetic voice... "yooouuuu should lose weight"..... "yoooooooo're too heavy for someone sooooooo short".... etc. BUT even though the Wii did pass a little judgement, it did pronounce me 2kgs lighter than I was when I left! haha!

Pretty sure that's not actually the case - once you allow for differences in scales etc. - but still, I'll take it for now.... and I'll do a little extra walking today :)

xo Tammy

The Perfect Day (aka. day 1)

2010-03-29T07:49:00.014+10:00

Yesterday (Saturday), was the first official day of my holiday - and it was a really wonderful day. After much discussion on Friday night, we'd decided that we'd all get up really early, and head out to a place called Sequim, which is a wildlife reserve where you can buy bread and then drive through the park, and lots of different types of animals will come up to the car and you can feed them. It's about 2 hours away from where Emily & C live, but a gorgeous drive there and back anyway, so we thought it would be beautiful. From there, we'd thought we'd head to a place called Hurricane Ridge, which is supposed to have a beautiful view and still has snow (yay!).

Unfortunately, I ruined the plan! Emily woke me up at 7:30am, as per the plan, I nodded at her, rolled over, and then suddenly it was 10:30am. Oh dear! By the time I finally stumbled downstairs, they'd already eaten breakfast (although there was a homemade breakfast sandwich waiting for me), and were getting on with stuff around the house. So we had to re-jig the plan. C really kindly volunteered to stay with P for the day so Emily and I could go out and spend some time together, and we decided to hit the city of Seattle :)

First we drove over to Bainbridge Island, about 30 minutes away. I know you're all getting a little sick of 'how beautiful Washington is', but really, it is - and the drive was lovely. We drove over a bridge to get to the island, and Emily tells me that they have a lot of really beautiful (and expensive) homes on Bainbridge Island. Apparently Jennifer Aniston has one out here? Anyway, here's a quick shot that I took of some of the nice homes on the island:

From there, we parked the car, and caught the Ferry over to Seattle. It was a really large ferry, and lots of people took their cars on, but we just 'walked on'. The weather was really 'brisk and fresh' as I like to say, but we were worried about being a little chilly later in the day, so Emily had lent me a really cute red jacket she has. The ferry ride took about 35 minutes, and was really fun. First, it was quaint and pretty with great views, then it was really windy, and then it was FREEZING! I had on a big jacket and a scarf and I was FREEZING! :) We lasted about 25 minutes, but we had to go and take shelter for the last 10 minutes or so :)

As we got closer to Seattle though, and the ferry was entering the harbour (where it's a little more sheltered from the wind), we went back out onto the deck, and took in the great views of Seattle from the water. It's a really pretty city. Lots of different colours and architecture - bricks, glass, steel, red, blue, brown, grey and green. The closer we got, the more I liked it :)

We had decided that first up, we'd go on the 'Seattle Underground Tour'. Emily had heard about it from friends who had done it, and we thought it sounded REALLY great. Seattle has a really interesting history. In a nutshell, there was a big fire in the late 1800s that wiped out 30 x 10 of the downtown blocks. When they rebuilt, the city planers raised the streets 12-30 feet to avoid future flooding problems they'd had in the past. But because it took them 2-3 years to raise all the streets, businesses rebuilt at the old ground level. This mean the sidewalks were down low with the businesses, and to access the streets, people climbed ladders from the sidewalks/business up to the streets and visa versa. Eventually, the city built sidewalks at the new level that covered the lower sidewalks, and businesses built second stories on top of their original buildings - so that the 'second stories' were now on ground level. Very interesting! You can read more about it on wikipedia, since it's probably a little more complicated than my very simple explanation! Anyway, these old sidewalks then became underground passages, and the tour discusses the history and takes us down into a bunch of the old tunnels/sidewalks.

The tour started in an old building that was done up like an old saloon. Emmy and I sat up on the balcony, and a really entertaining guide gave us a history overview about the founding of Seattle, and the early pioneers and city planners - Seattle's first movers and shakers. He took us right through the unfortunate fire (started by a 17 year boy who's mind wandered while he was making glue, and who subsequently moved to California and changed his name). Anyway, after this intro, we all filed outside into Pioneer Square and were separated into 4 separate groups (mine met over by the totem pole). Each group had their own tour guide, and we visited different sections of the tour in different orders (they push a lot of us through on that tour - they must make a killing!).

We really enjoyed the tour. Our tour-guide was a little crazy, and her voice seemed to drive almost everyone on our tour crazy, but once you got past that, we all had a great time. Really fascinating stuff to see and learn about. One of the things I enjoyed was seeing the 'skylights' that they built into the sidewalks that covered the old sidewalks. Because people still used the underground sidewalk to access the lower levels (until they were all condemned a couple of decades later), they built purple glass squares into a lot of the sidewalks above ground - which acted as skylights. They're all over the sidewalk in the city, and they just look like decorative tiles. It's not until you view them from underground that you realize their real purpose :)

Anyway, on the tour, we heard about a couple of other things in Seattle that we thought we'd like to check out. The first was the Smith Tower, which was the tallest building west of the Mississippi between 1914 and 1931 :) There's a viewing platform up the top and we were all set to go up and see it. Unfortunately, when we walked (up a very steep hill) to the front door of the building, we saw a sign telling us that it was closed for a private function *heavy sigh*. So we walked back down the hill, and went instead to the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory. They sold so many yummy types of chocolate, and a huge variety of 'candied apples' - covered in chocolate, caramel, nuts, coconut - you name it. I'm not huge on apples, but they were still really fun to look at, and we ended up getting one to take home for Chris. We also ended up with a couple of chocolates for ourselves.... lol!

Once we'd finished up at the Chocolate Factory, we headed off in search of the Space Needle. After stopping back at the underground tours place to get directions from a guide, we caught the bus to the Space Needle. It was a little scary because neither of us really knew how to catch the bus here, but we managed okay. There was a slight panic when we realized that the 'free bus' we'd been riding has gone past the 'free zone' and we had to pay as we got off, but we managed to scrounge the required 'correct change' from our wallets while an ever growing line of not-so-patient people built behind us.

The Space Needle costs $17 per person to get up the top to the viewing platform. SEVENTEEN DOLLARS people! We were really surprised at the cost, but we'd come this far, and thought we'd better keep going. The lines were really long, and it took us a while to get into the elevator, but we eventually made it. We were the last of the group to get on the elevator, and were right by the doors. The doors closed, and the elevator started shooting up to the top of the tower. That's when we suddenly realized that the walls of the elevator were completely made of see through glass, so that the view opened up right before you as you shot up! I would NOT have stood sandwiched quite so close to the completely glass doors if I'd realized they were completely glass doors! I freaked out just a little and took as big a step as possible BACK from the door :) Emily got a good laugh at that! I was alright once I had a chance to take it in, but it certainly took my off guard!

Once we got to the top, we wondered around and quickly got bored. We've decided that for your $17, all you really get is the opportunity to say that you've been up the space needle, because it really wasn't all that exciting from the top - though it certainly is a long way up. The elevator ride down was a highlight - since we were expecting it the second time - and then it released us out into the very large gift shop :)

We had planned to walk back down to the docks, but seeing it from the top of the space needle, we'd realized it was actually quite a long way! So we sprung for a cab that took us back down to the water.

Our plan was to hit The Crab Pot for dinner - but we got sidetracked and ended up taking a bit of a wander. We walked about another massive hill and 5,000,000 stairs to the big warehouse and open area that houses PIke's Market. It was about 5:30pm at this point, the markets were closing down. A lot of the venders had already packed up for the day, but we had a bit of a wander through anyway, just in case we don't get the chance to go back again. Mum, I thought of you when we got to the flower section! Most had already packed down, but there were still huge areas of the most beautiful flowers, and they're all sold REALLY cheap! We got a beautiful boquet of flowers for $10, and they've been sitting on the kitchen table ever since.

After our wanderings, we went back down to the dock, and over to The Crab Pot. There was an hours wait for dinner, so we put our names on the list, and went out to sit on one of the piers and watch the sunset. It was just the most gorgeous weather, cold but crisp with lovely sunshine. Usually I much prefer rain, but it was so perfect that I didn't even mind the sunshine :) We just sat and chatted and ate chocolates from our chocolate factory visit.

Finally, our hour was up and we made it into The Crab Pot. The place was packed, but we were starving - we had never actually eaten lunch we'd been so busy :) The specialty at The Crab Pot (and the reason Emily dragged me there) is a huge tub of seafood that they come and dump on your table. They give you a fork, a hammer and lots and lots of paper towels, and you just go for it! The hammer is for the crabs legs. I'd never actually had crab legs before (I usually go for prawns or fish), but they were really yummy - though they're annoying to try and extract the flesh from (the bottom photo is an action shot of me doing just that!). Our table was full of Crab, Mussells, Clams, Prawns, Potato, Corn and Kabana. It was delicious! The crab was great, but my favourite was undoubtably the prawns :) A really really great dinner!

After dinner, we were able to catch the 9pm ferry back to Bainbridge Island. Now, I hadn't had any problem with the ferry on the way over. But it was dark now! As we got to the ferry, I started to freak out just a tiny bit! I don't like water and boats very much - and the night/dark combination was one I hadn't thought to consider. I know Emily knew I was nervous, but I don't think she realized just how terrified I was really feeling as the ferry chugged out of Seattle. As the city lights got further and further away I had to through myself into our conversation with increasing gusto in an attempt not to freak out! Seriously, who's idea was the MEXICAN CRUISE! I may have survived the Bainbridge Island ferry, but at least I could always see lights on a shore somewhere - even when they were small - so at least I would have known which direction I needed to swim! What am I supposed to do when the CRUISE SHIP sinks!

Ahhhhh!

I've noticed it's a little better if I'm inside and can't actually SEE the water... mind you, even when I'm inside, I have to be sitting close to a door so I could get out and start swimming if I needed!

BUT - all in all, a FANTASTIC day. I really love Seattle - such a beautiful city. And I love all the water, and the greenery. I loved the tour and the cool underground history. And of course, I loved the company! So much fun just to chill and spend the whole day chin-wagging.

So I'm glad I slept in! Hurricane Ridge and Sequim would have been wonderful, but the city day was perfect :)
xo Tammy

yawn

2010-03-28T16:40:00.003+10:00

Hi everyone,

Had the most perfect day today. Just perfect :) But I'm really really really tired (it's just about to go on midnight here), so I'm going to tell you about it tomorrow. Otherwise I won't do it justice, and a perfect day should have a perfect blog post :)

In the meantime, here's a photo of Brodi and I at the Brisbane Airport that Brodi took on her iphone, and then emailed to me (see how cool iphones are?!).

Can't you just see how excited we both are to be getting ready to go on our holiday?! :)

Love you all,
xo Tammy

PS. Bethany, I understood the initials everyone else was talking about in their posts, but have NO idea what you were talking about! lol! You'll have to use actual words :) The point is to use a code the people reading will actually understand.... hahah!

PPS. Jess! Would LOVE to catch up with you of course! I just haven't been organized enough to track everyone's details down yet :) I will DEFINITELY be there for a weekend - next weekend in fact, so it would be the perfect time to see you. Although, actually, General Conference is on... well, either way - even if a day won't work, we'll be able to find a night, but just let me know what will suit you and I'm sure we can figure it out :) If you get a second, email me through your phone number and I'll give you a call as soon as I get there.

Seattle the beautiful

2010-03-27T13:55:00.003+10:00

Okay, I LOVE Washington! (state, not DC... I can still remember finding out that they were different places - that was interesting! Very confusing, but good to know!). Anyway, this place combines my love of water (rain and sounds and bays and rivers) and my love mountains and all things green. No wonder they film so many beautiful movies here. The place is breathtaking. Lots of pretty bridges as well. I really enjoyed the 1 and a half hour drive from the airport back to Emily's place.

But I jump ahead of myself. The last time I wrote, I was standing at an internet kiosk in LAX airport, typing as fast as I could because my flight was leaving in 25 minutes. So if that post made any sense, I'll be impressed with myself :) The flight was long. Well, it felt long. I was sick of travelling, and really just wanted to 'get there'. And then the flight was delayed an hour because there was a problem with the refueling truck. Or something like that, I'm not actually sure because I got on the plane, sat down and immediately fell asleep - I was just exhausted! When I woke up 45 minutes later, we were still on the tarmac and the pilot was coming over the loud speaker to say that we were finally ready for take off. The delay, combined with a 'strong headwind' meant that we were an hour late!

Poor Emily! She was waiting at Seattle/Tacoma airport for me with her GORGEOUS little boy, baby P (who was really well behaved considering he had to spend that hour in the stroller). They didn't tell them the flight was delayed, so Emily was increasingly concerned that I was lost somewhere in the airport! By the time I finally arrived, I think she was on the verge of having my name read out over the loud speaker (sidenote: this is another disadvantage of people without cellphones... they can't call anyone when their plane gets delayed...)

It was SO SO SO wonderful to see Emily! On the one hand, it's been so long and our life as roommates seems so long ago. But on the other hand, it was as if we'd never been apart. She's such a wonderful friend, and I was just so excited the second I saw her. And I know I've already said it, but this son of hers is just gorgeous! And he knows it too :) He's only 1 year old, but boy can he turn on the charm for the ladies :)

The drive back to her place was wonderful. Just fun to talk and catch up, and the scenery really was beautiful - can't wait for the rest of the week now. More fun and talking and sight-seeing. When we got back to her house, C had already cooked dinner, and it was really yummy. We had salmon steaks grilled to perfection, with mashed potato, and then Emmy cooked some delicious carrots. I know, I said delicious. Even though carrots are vegetables :)

It's so fun to see Emily again, and to be seeing C and baby P in person - although they look just like they do on the blog pictures, so I feel like I already know them. And they've got such a lovely home. It's a cute little townhouse, and Emily's done a really, really, really lovely job doing it up. Beautiful pictures and decorations and homey touches. She's a budding interior designer I'd say. I feel a little bad that Baby P has been kicked out of his room for the next week, but I do love his room, and am a little excited to be staying in there :) Cutest pictures and animal trimmings everywhere. You'd love it Abby.

Okay, I'd better go. We're watching a movie at the moment, and we'll all head off to bed soon. The adventures will no doubt continue tomorrow. Am having such a good time, and am really happy to be here with such wonderful friends, even though I'm missing everyone at home.

xo Tammy

PS. For those of you wondering about B, Emily and I gave her a quick call before, and everyone is 'good' :) So glad and happy for her!

Greetings from LA! (Well, from the airport anyway)

2010-03-27T05:15:00.002+10:00

Have to be quick-ish here, because my plane for Seattle leaves shortly (yay Emmy! can't wait to see you!). But the news is that I've arrived in LA and am safe and alive. LAX is the same as I remember it, and I still don't like it very much. The same old people trying to get money from you for 'the homeless', the same dirty floors and long lines. BUT, it means that I'm officially on my holiday, which is very exciting. The flight wasn't too bad at all - was really nice to be flying with B instead of on my own. I didn't get a very good sleep, but I at least got SOME sleep, which is more than B (who managed to fit several movies in, but would rather have slept). Have freshened up and had a quick bite to eat (chicken/shredded cabbage salad). Actually, my 'freshen up' and bathroom stop made me laugh at myself a little, I was going from cubicle to cubicles checking for a toilet that wasn't blocked, and got through about 8 stalls before I remembered that the water level in the toilets here is much higher than at home :) How quickly we forget things like that! At least it meant that there weren't several blocked toilets in a row, because that would have been really bad service! lol :)

Okay - better run and get that plane. Just wanted to let you know I landed safely. Will write again soon!

xo Tammy

Serious withdrawals!

2010-03-26T10:33:00.002+10:00

I didn't realise just how attached to my iphone I have become! Did you know, that once you leave your iphone on your bedside table and head off to the airport without it, there are a whole bunch of things you can no longer do? It's true. You can't check your emails (hotmail, gmail and work), and you can't use the internet. That means no blogs, no facebook, now msnbc news page, basically no connection with the outside world AT ALL. I'm not sure how we all used to LIVE like this?! Oh, AND I can't call anyone! I realized I'd forgotten to phone the bank and tell them I was heading overseas. So you know what I did? I used a payphone! A payphone people! (I'm pretty sure there were heaps of germs on it too, so that was a little bit scary.... but I figure people used to use pay phones all the time and no one ever died.... that I heard of anyway...).

Anyway, I got a little excited to see this 'internet station' and gladly deposited my$2. Okay, so it was B's $2... I cleaned all of the Australian money out of my purse since 'I wouldn't need it anymore'. Thank goodness B doesn't think like me :)

Okay, so the Brisbane International Airport. It's been a few years since I was here, but it's looking good - some renovations have been completed and the place looks pretty great. In fact, the Brisbane International Airport was recently voted 18th in the world, and was the only Australian airport to make the top 25 list! So it's not a bad place to hang out for the extra half hour that our flight has been delayed :) Part shopping mall, part lounge area, part food court. All with a great view of the planes. We may even have some Subway for lunch... a wrap, not a breadroll ;)

But my $2 is about to run out, so I'd better leave it at that. Am looking forward to getting underway. Mainly so that I get some sleep I think - I'm exhausted! I've promised B I'll get excited when I wake up again - lol!

Thanks to those who have commented on my previous post - keep them coming :)

Love to all!
xo Tammy

Party in the USA!

2010-03-26T04:43:00.002+10:00

Okay people! It's D-Day. 4:56am on Friday the 26th of March. Can you believe it's finally here?

(Do I sound sufficiently preppy above? I'm trying - but honestly, I'm so tired right now that I don't really care if I go on a holiday or not! lol!).

Turns out packing is really hard. It's funny that I've only just figured that out, considering how many times I've done it in the past, but seriously, it's hard. I've been 'packing' for a few hours now, and still only have one or two things in the suitcases! To be fair, I had to try on every item of clothing I own, so that took a while. And then I had to put a wash through and it's still in the dryer, so that's taking time. I've packed my shoes (only taking 4 pairs), but toiletries are totally getting the better of me. They just seem too difficult to gather, so I've been procrastinating (hence this blog entry). I've been kinda wondering what would happen if I just didn't finish packing! B would probably come over and finish it for me... hmmm.... perhaps not a terrible option...

Okay. I'd better go. Have to iron my clothes, have a shower, blow dry my hair (actually, I'd better hurry), and then get the other clothes out of the dryer and pack quickly! Ahhh! Where did the night go?!

Next time I jump on, I suspect I'll be somewhere in Washington State (depending of course on exactly where EMILY lives)! Yay! :)

xo Tammy

PS. A special shout out to my wonderful sister Jessima who obediently gave birth to my nephew before I left on holidays. Thanks Jessima - he's PERFECT :)

Still...

2010-02-24T12:26:00.005+10:00

... exercising very early each morning
... tired all the time (I thought I was suddenly supposed to have more energy?!)
... eating healthy (including vegetables... and I still think they’re yuk)
... doing things with the Young Women & other church stuff
... spending fun (but short) spurts of time with various family members
... working like a crazy person (and from the looks of a new massive project and its crazy 4 week deadline, that’s only going to get worse)
... saving my pennies
... excited about my holidays!

xo Tammy

Quoteboard

2010-02-12T06:27:00.002+10:00

This conversation was panted out during our morning workout today:

B - I was so hungry at 6:30 last night after my shake, that I steamed a huge bowl of broccoli and ate the whole thing! Is that really bad?

T - No way! That's good. We can eat as many of the good vegetables as we like - as long as we don't eat them too late..... I was bad last night though.

B - Yeah?

T - Yeah, right before my shake I ate 3 olives.

About an hour later, the conversation suddenly struck me as funny! Look at us! Guilty over a bowl of broccoli and 3 olives :)

6 weeks and 9.2kgs down. Only the rest of my life and 9.2 million kgs more to go!

Instructions in pain

2010-02-10T06:34:00.006+10:00

This little treat is called the 'Stability Ball Jackknife'.

Sounds violent, right?

1) Brace your abs. Put your elbows on the bench and rest your shins on the ball.
2) With your arms straight and your back flat, your body should form a straight line from your shoulders to your ankles.
3) Keeping your back straight (don't round it), roll the ball as close to your chest as possible by contracting your abs and pulling it forward.
4) Pause and then return the ball to the starting position by rolling it backward.
5) Do NOT round your lower back.

I would add the following steps:

6) Grunt loudly.
7) Roll sideways off the ball and collapse sprawled out like a giant washed-ashore squid.
8) Vow NEVER to do it again
9).... you know, until tomorrow.....

On the upside - yesterday I wore an outfit I haven't been able to wear for almost a year. Ben gave me the thumbs up when he saw me. Nothing like encouragement from your 17 year old brother :)

xo Tammy

Aunty, Traveller & Goal-Keeper Extrodinaire

2010-02-07T13:46:00.006+10:00

Hello loyal readers!

(Because loyal you are if you're still checking this blog for posts when I write so rarely!)

Well, it's 2010. In fact, it's February, 2010! That happened fast! I keep meaning to write a big long post and tell you all about the things that are and have been going on in my life - but as usual, now that I'm actually sitting here in front of my computer, I can't think of a single thing to write! Of course, the nice thing about blog writing is that I can take as long as I like to write this post, and you'll never know the difference :) Maybe I'll put things under little headings to help me organize my thoughts.

That won't make the whole thing seem to formal for you, will it?! Hopefully not :)

Tammy the Aunty
I'm so enjoying spending time with my little nieces these days! Maggie is just beautiful, and so precious. She's 2 weeks old today, and she seems so much more aware (aka. awake) the last few times I've seen her, which is a lot of fun. She has the cutest little wardrobe, and the cutest little nursery, and the cutest little mother. I'm really looking forward to seeing how she grows up. Oh, and she does the cutest little full-body jig when she's being burped. I've quite seriously never seen any child do it before. She's obviously full of talent :)

And then of course Jenna is just delightful (even though she suddenly looks like a giant next to Maggie!). She absolutely cracks me up the way she struts around the house, and uses her charms to get picked up by whoever is closest to whatever it is she wants to see or touch. She loves an audience, and loves to laugh and be part of the whatever is going on, and lately she's gotten really really talkative. She doesn't always speak English either - sometimes they're just nonsense words - but she seems to know exactly what she's talking about judging by the animated gestures, facial expressions and vocal inflections!

AND, I'm really looking forward to meeting little Jackson when he's born in March!

Tammy the Traveller
I'm very very excited about my trip to the states in April. I know many of you have already heard about it, but for those who haven't, I'm taking 5 whole weeks off work and escaping to the USA for a much anticipated break! It's become pretty obvious to me that the only way to escape from work is to take a holiday overseas, since I've never taken a holiday here in Australia without getting dozens of calls from work - so let's hope this works!

Would you like to hear the itinerary?!

I leave Brisbane on Friday the 26th of March at about 11Am. (That's about 1 week after Jackson's due date... so I really hope he's born on time... we've got that under control, right Jessima?!).

I arrive in LA about 3 hours before I left Brisbane (let your mind trip over that one!), and I fly straight to the Seattle-Tacoma Airport to see Emily, Chris and Parker! Woohoo! I can't wait to see them. We've got a very excited itinerary planned which involves spending a day at Pike's Market (very cool!), dressing-up like crazy Twilight fans and visiting Forks, seeing her teach her YW class, and ooing and ahhing over how cute Parker is! I can't wait to see Emily and meet her cute family (providing the US Navy doesn't change their minds about me being a 'friendly national' and all....).

From there, I'll travel to SLC on around the 1st of April, where I'll be staying with the beautiful Peta, and her (glob trotting) sister Jenny (who has timed her USA visit perfectly!). Very excited to see them both - AND all of my other Utah friends! I'm really really looking forward to catching up with lots of friends (and if you'd like to be one of them - though I'm assuming that if you're reading this blog then you're already on my list - then make sure you let me know in the comments below!). I'll get there just in time for General Conference too, which is part of the plan. Peta has time off work between the 5-10th of April, which will be wonderful. I think we're planning to re-enact several of our favourite past-times (Panda Express in the Provo Town mall food court followed by Cold Stone ice cream hidden in handbag and smuggled into movie theatre etc. etc. etc.) lol!

There's also a good chance that Peta, Jenny and I will also be taking a short 5 day cruise to Mexico between the 10th and 15th of April - so that should be fun too! It'll include 2 days in Carbo San Lucas (which I fell in love with as soon as I saw pictures of it on google! haha!).

And then, on about the 18th or 19th of April, I'll be flying to NYC (woohoo) to spend almost 2 whole weeks with Brecken, Justin, Reuben and Simeon (double and triple woohoo!). Can't wait to see them, and can't wait to see New York (I've always thought I was a bit of a New Yorker at heart!). My plan there is to spend 12 whole days just sitting and talking and laughing and talking and crying and talking and laughing with Brecken :) And then, in our spare time, we'll have wonderful times with Justin, cuddle the boys, and sight-see in NEW YORK!

And then *sob* I'll leave my days of holiday leisure behind and travel back to my real life (you know, the one where I work full time! lol!). I'll leave NY on the 30 of April I believe, and get back to Australia on the 2nd of May (there goes that crazy time-zone thing again!). The good news is that there is a public holiday on Monday the 3rd of May, so I'll get a quick breather in to catch up with my wonderful family, before it's back to work again :)

So as you can see, I'm very excited. It's less then 7 weeks till my flight! Oh, and the other lovely thing is that my friend Brodi is also travelling over to the USA (to Sandy, Utah) at the same time, so we've booked our Brisbane to LA flights together so we have a friend, and neither of us accidentally get on a plane to Russia. Or, you know, so that we'll have company if we DO accidentally get on a plane to Russia.

Tammy the New Years Resolution Keeper
And speaking of Brodi - she's kind of become my hero since the 4th of January! Every morning, she comes over to my house at 5am, and we work out together until 6am. We both decided that our New Years Resolution would be to get in shape and lose some weight, and we both can't believe that we're still going at it! This last week, we graduated from the Beginner workout, and have gone up to the intermediate workout. And all I can say is that the intermediate work out is WAY HARDER! haha! We've both barely been able to move all week we're so sore! But still we continue! Thank goodness Brodi keeps turning up every morning, or there's no way I'd still be at this :) And not only are we still at it, but it's actually working :) I feel much healthier, and much better physically (or at least, I suspect I will, once every muscle in my body stops hurting). I eat vegetables now (a lot!), and the weight is coming off bit by bit. So yay for February. Our plan is to continue up until our holiday, and then to try and just keep being 'somewhat' healthy while we're overseas (obviously that conflicts with my Panda Express and Coldstone plans up above...hmm...), and then to keep going when we get back. And (knock wood), I actually think we'll manage to reach our goals! How exciting!

Okay - I'd better go. I'll be surprised if any of you are still reading - once again I've written an epistle!

My love to each of you though - and I'm looking forward to seeing many of you again soon (ie. If you're a Munro, there's a good chance I'll see you at Fast Sunday dinner tonight, and if you're an American, there's a good chance I'll see in you in about 7 weeks!)

xo Tammy

PS. If you've got ideas or suggestions for the holiday, send them on over - It's still pretty fluid since I haven't booked any of the domestic flights yet.... International ones are officially booked and paid for though! woohoo!

Quoteboard

2010-02-01T20:08:00.004+10:00

Overheard while Dad, Ben, Oliver & Micky are playing 4-player Mario Cart...

Oliver: Grrr. Dad, you're annoying me!
Dad: I'm in 11th spot! How can I be annoying anybody?!
Micky: I'm in 12th spot - you're annoying me...

xo Tammy

Abby Update...

2010-01-23T16:42:00.001+10:00

The poor girl is still going :(

She went into labour on Thursday night, and it's now 4:30pm Saturday afternoon. Thursday night the contractions were 6 minutes apart, but then they'd move back to 15 minutes or an hour apart, than back to a couple of minutes - they just won't settle. Last night at about 11:30pm, they finally went to the hospital. And contractions were a little more regular. But then by this morning, they'd backed off a little, and they took her into the ward to keep going there (not before she heard 5 other babies be born!.... she was telling me about one lady who's screams were so loud for about an hour, followed by a couple of minutes of sailor-like-swearing, followed by the wonderful sound of a baby's cry!).

Mum's been up at the hospital on and off, but Bethany and I went to see Abby (and James) for about 20minutes earlier today. She's doing so wonderfully - but she just looks exhausted. She was having contractions pretty constantly while we were there, and she was trying them standing up with James holding her up for support. When she first saw Bethany and I she was just coming out of one, and her first exhausted words were "It's so much worse than I thought. You're screwed. We're all screwed". It was just a little bit funny although I'm pretty sure she was being serious :)

Anyway, we took her some flowers and tiny pink baby clothes (to remind her that Maggie will be more fun once she's born), and Bethy got James some food. It was just nice for us both to be able to giver her some sister love and a tiny bit of sister-support. We've both been worried about her, so I'm glad mum suggested the visit. Her water had just broken when we got there, so we were all hoping things would start going faster (that was several hours ago now though).

Mum's just headed up to the hospital again. They've just moved her into a private room again(she's progressing and needs a little more privacy), but they still haven't taken her back to the birthing suite, so there's obviously some more work left to be done. Oh, and Maggie's posterior, so that's not very good news either. On the other hand, she's moving around a lot in there, and
seems to be doing just fine - so that's good news.

So there's the update. My heart is really aching for her, but she's being so brave and doing so well (when I said that to her, she said "I'm not doing well, look at me!" but I did, and I still think she's doing wonderfully). Thanks for all of your prayers and support, I know she really appreciates it. Hopefully a little later tonight everything will be over, and the mum part can start for her :)

xo Tammy

PS. Oh, other highlight of the day: seeing Bethany's face when I answered her "What does 'only 2cm dilated' mean?" question.... :)

Abby's in Labour...

2010-01-22T09:42:00.001+10:00

Ahhhhhhh!

SO exciting :) Can't wait to meet little Maggie!

If you've got a moment, say a little prayer for mother and bub :)

More details to follow no doubt....

xo Tammy

New Post Coming Soon

2010-01-07T11:42:00.001+10:00

I promise!

:)

xo Tammy

PS. Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and that the new year is looking completely fantastic for you!

Thanksgiving

2009-11-29T08:01:00.002+10:00

We don't have thanksgiving in Australia, and I wish we did. Not because of the feast (because just between you and me, if I was going to come up with a dinner that everyone had to eat once a year, I'd pick better than green beans and candied yams...), but because of the opportunity to have everyone turning inwards and upwards with feelings of reflection and gratitude.

I'm thankful for so many things. I sometimes forget how much I am, and how much I have, and how much I enjoy. My family, friends, my knowledge of and testimony of my Heavenly Father and Saviour. My talents, opportunities and experiences. For music, for this beautiful, beautiful world, and for the tender mercies and teachings of the Spirit, and for prayer. All of these things bring me so much joy. I'm grateful for Jenna and the other two upcoming Munro/Easthopes, I'm grateful for technology, I'm grateful for my church callings, I'm grateful for Christmas. I'm grateful for rain, and running water - for their sounds and smells. I'm grateful for chocolate and watermelon and avocado (although I'd be just a tad more grateful if they were calorie-free), I'm grateful for my ward and the blessing it is to hear from church leaders. I'm grateful for the holiday I'm really looking forward to next year (and for the blessing it will be to escape the office for a month!). I'm grateful for my job, and the things that I've learnt. For my home, my bed, my desk, the kitchen, bathroon, family room. For the roof that covers it all, and the airconditioning that makes it so pleasant. For my car, for my education, and for my ability to read and have access to so many wonderful books. I'm grateful for a sound mind and a (relatively) healthy body. For the freedom, peace and sense of community and belonging I enjoy here in Oz. For the other wonderful places I've also been blessed to visit and live. For the tooth that's finally stopped hurting. For a lack of green beans and candied yams on tonight's menu. For laughter and humour and a Heavenly Father who's love I've never doubted.

Take a look at this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tuwid8_O8dk. It's become a new favourite for me. They just get better and better, don't they? :)

And then drop me a line and tell me what you're grateful for....

xo Tammy

Chair Soccer in the Backyard

2009-11-05T11:08:00.000+10:00

A few Saturdays ago, the family came over and we spent an hour or two playing Chair Soccer in the backyard. Nothing overly special, but it was a fun way to spend a few hours :) The general gist of the game (and you'll quickly see why I'm willing to play this kind of soccer), is that everyone has a chair that you place in a large circle, and everyone has to defend their chair. If someone manages to kick the ball so it hits your chair, than you're out and you have to sit down. Naturally, I usually don't stray too far from my chair... :)

Anyway, here are a couple of photos I took that afternoon, and 2 little videos I took on my digital camera. Obviously, they're not the best quality videos, but I thought they were kind of fun. The first one is just showing some of one of the games (it shows one of the few times when Jessima got out actually - she's pretty good at the old soccer, but she was trying to be careful since she's pregant), and the second shows a bit of video of Abby the beautiful (very) pregnant lady, followed by a random bit where the ball goes over the fence and everyone suddenly nominates Ben to go get it, followed by a little bit of Jenna toddling around the backyard. It's a miracle she wasn't hit by the ball actually...

Enjoy! xo Tammy

PS. Okay, I'm having trouble with the videos - sorry :( I'll see if I can load them as a separate entry under this one, but otherwise the photos will have to do :)

Video - Gorgeous Abby

2009-11-05T11:05:00.000+10:00

A Day at the Beach

2009-11-03T10:30:00.001+10:00

A few weeks ago we had our Stake Youth Beach day, and in spite of my standard 'I hate sand' (almost as much as Jess hates snow... so that's a lot!), it was a really lovely day, and I thoroughly enjoyed myself :) Rather than plan a lot of structured activities, we just picked a sheltered beach on the spit down on the Gold Coast, where there's a roped off shark net area with a platoon for the kids to jump off and swim around in. We also set up beach volleyball, and hired a bunch of water craft (canoes, kayaks and water bikes) for the kids to play on. It started at 8 (so us leaders were there at 6:30am), and went until about 1pm. It was a really gorgeous day, not too hot at all (we're only in spring after all), and there was plenty of shade. I had a lovely lazy time chatting with kids and other leaders, and just relaxing! We put on a steak burgers lunch for them all, and had cut up watermelons for dessert. I've pasted some photos from the day bellow... watercraft, the 5 Priesthood Leaders it took to light the BBQ, shots of the beach and a picture of my brother Oliver :)

My assignment for the day was the watermelons, and I wish I'd thought to take photos of them! Bethany and I stopped by the local IGA on our way home from work the night before the activity, and filled (and I mean 'filled') a shopping trolley with watermelons! In fact, we emptied the stand, leaving only 3 lonely looking watermelons in the grocery department. It was really funny when we got to the checkout - everyone was laughing at us, and quite a line formed behind us while they processed them all. Everyone was in a friendly 'thank goodness it's Friday' mood I think, because there was no shortage of jokey banter between them all... my favourite was the two biker guys who said to us "You know you'll be known as the watermelon girls from now on!" *raucous laughter*
Anyway - lovely day all round. Even if it was at the beach!
xo Tammy

The plan...

2009-11-01T09:20:00.002+10:00

Greeting blog followers!

*Insert standard apology about how I'm sorry I haven't written for ages because I've been really busy etc. etc*

I've been up to a fair bit lately, and have actually kept you in mind with photos of the odd activity here and there, but these photos/stories never seem to get themselves onto my blog

*Insert standard excuse about how I'm too busy to write blog entries because my job is taking over my life etc. etc*

I'm just loading the photos onto my computer now, and I was thinking I'd write a mammoth entry about all the things I've been doing etc. etc. , but I think we all know that if I do that, the entry will be 13 pages long, and most of you won't have time to read it all. I'll also be unlikely to post again for another month or so... so instead, I think I'll write a few separate posts, and put them on time release, so they publish a couple of days apart for the next week or so. How's that?! I like the plan because it means I'll get more comments than if I just post once :D

But to give you a couple of tidbits now (because I know you'll all be going crazy with suspense waiting for the next posts.

(Which I should actually warn you aren't going to be THAT exciting... I mean, I haven't won an international trip or had dinner with the Queen or anything...)

I have been released from my Stake Young Women's calling, which was a little sad (I've really enjoyed it), but I've been called as the 1st counselor in our ward YW presidency - which is really exciting. It's going to be busier (ward callings always are!) but it'll be really nice to work directly with the girls for once - it's much more hands on, and I'm really excited to be working with Brodi (our president) and Sulla (our second counselor), so I'm sure there will be more stories to follow on that front.

I should also warn you that I've been signing up for choirs left right and centre at the moment, and I just realized that I'm likely not to have more than 1-2 nights a week at home over the next 3 weeks! I hadn't quite made that connection as I was signing up for them! But it should be fun anyway, if I don't die of exhaustion (I have a habit of biting off more than I can realistically chew, unfortunately)... I haven't done any real singing in a long time, so hopefully this will help renew my vocal chords a little :)

HANDEL'S MESSIAH
I've signed up to join the QLD Choir for a short stint for a concert of Handel's Messiah on Saturday 21st of November. They like to swell to a 200 voice choir for this concert, so they let people join, and I figured I could handel (get it, 'Handel'), I figured I could 'handle' a 3 week stint. I did it last year, and they perform in City Hall with a Baroque orchestra and 4 fabulous soloists, so I'm looking forward to it. I'm also doing it with a work colleague who was keen to sing with a choir, and so I'm singing alto to keep her company. Rehearsals will be Monday and Thursday nights until the concert. The only down side is that I won't actually be able to make the concert itself, because:

ELDER COOK YSA FIRESIDE
The apostle, Elder Cook is coming out to Brisbane over the weekend of the 21st and 22nd of November, and on the 21st (Saturday night), he's having a fireside just with the YSA (finally, an upside to being a YSA!). Anyway, I'm playing the piano for the YSA choir that will be singing at the EMP chapel. Quite excited about that - haven't played the piano for a choir for a long time! Rehearsals are Wednesday nights for the next three weeks.

GENERAL AUTHORITY STAKE CONFERENCE
And then, either Elder Cook or Elder Gonzalas will be speaking at a special stake conference for my stake on Sunday the 22nd of November. So I'm signing with the Stake Choir for that fireside. Rehearsals are Sunday nights until then.

CHRISTMAS FIRESIDE
My stake is having a Christmas musical fireside on Sunday December 20th, and the Stake Choir will also be singing for that, so after the stake conference, we'll continue rehearsing Sunday nights until then. Except for fast Sundays and Sunday the 22nd of November, when there's a stake youth fireside about using technology, and I'm giving (and need to prepare actually!) a workshop about social media and how to and to NOT use it...

YOUTH NIGHTS FOR YOUNG WOMEN
Are every Tuesday night, so those are blocked out in the calendar now... forever :) I went to the first one last week, and it was really fun. We were doing a night about first aid (to follow up on the Sunday lesson 'Health Care in the Home' and mum came in and took the workshop (she used to be a nurse, so she knows this stuff really well!). And of course, mum did a great job :) My favourite was when she put talcum powder all over her hands and then shook hands and touched people left right and centre to demonstrate how germs spread. We were all covered in powder and not a little freaked out about ever letting people near us ever again!

SO, that leaves Friday and Saturday nights free :) There's a few Youth Stake dances, Ward YSA activities and family things sprinkled through there (Abby's baby shower is coming up soon...), but otherwise people will just have to catch me in December :)

It should be a fun month - I really love Christmas :)

Okay - so your worst fears were confirmed, and I wrote a 13 page blog entry anyway. I'm afraid it wasn't very exciting... just another logistical information blog!

*Heavy sigh... did you really expect anything different?!*

But if it makes you all feel better, I think I've used the blog to organize my head a little better, and I'm now feeling better organized... so there's your silver lining!

Okay, I will take my leave to go and write other entries to post on timed release....

*If they don't appear, it means I never actually wrote them, because this entry has been going for AGES... but check back in a day or two anyway... *

xo Tammy :)

So how 'bout that weather?!

2009-09-27T10:35:00.004+10:00

Wednesday morning was a gorgeous clear morning. And as I drove to work, I heard on the radio that other parts of Australia was having some really bizarre weather. Apparently there was a tornado in South Australia, A couple of earthquakes in Melbourne, bush fires in North Queensland, and a dust storm in Sydney. I think I thought something like "I really love this country!" but otherwise, I didn't think too much about the crazy weather.

When I got to work though, I heard a bit more about Sydney's little dust storm. Apparently Sydney woke up that morning to an orange world! Overnight, high easterly winds were bringing the red dirt in from Australia's inland deserts, and dumping it all up and down the east coast. Here are a few photos from online news sources. You'll see the dual photo of the Sydney Opera House (how it normally looks, and how it looked in the storm), one of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, and a famous one (that I keep seeing everywhere) of that woman going for a run under the Harbour Bridge. Pretty crazy stuff!

A few hours later, we heard that there was a good chance that we'd get a bit of the dust storm hitting Brisbane, although not as bad as Sydney. By lunch time, I couldn't see the high rise city buildings on the other side of the river! Our dust storm was more yellow than orange, but here's a few photos (again, from online news sources). I picked a couple of the Story Bridge, because I work right under the bridge on one side.

What's strange about the photos is that you can't see any of the cliffs or buildings that you'd normally see in the background - pretty surreal! The dust didn't come inside toooo much, although you could taste it in your mouth, and the light coming in through the windows made everything seem a surreal amber colour. Visibility was down to about 100metres during the middle of the day. Luckily, people were home at our house, and shut up all the windows, but a lot of people had left their windows open in the morning when they headed off to work - and did they have a mess awaiting them when they got home that night - a layer of dirt over everything in their homes!

As the dust was coming in, I looked out at the park across the road and saw a bunch of elderly people having a picnic (the nurses and bus indicated that they'd come out for a lovely outing in the city). Obviously the didn't stay long! But they had a few of us worried as they dragged their oxygen tanks back to the bus!

The 'storm' lasted over a 2-3 day period up the entire east coast of Australia. At it's peak, they estimate that 75,000 tonnes of dust were being lost from the Australian continent (out into the pacific ocean) ever hour. That's crazy. Scientists are still arguing about what that will do to the barrier reef. If your interested in the details of the storm (and they're fascinating), look at the wikipedia entry. Do you know what I thought was strangest of all though? That we didn't know it was going to happen in advance. I'm a bit of a weather report junky, and I can always tell you what the weather is looking like for the next couple of days, but no one in Sydney really knew it was coming till they woke up that morning! We just knew it going to be windy :) And I didn't really know it was happening in Brisbane until I noticed the light in the office changing, and then went to look out the window.

It had subsided some by the time I drove home, but visibility was still low. As I walked out to my car, there wasn't really anyone around on the streets, and everything was really quite. The street definitely had a bit of a spooky nuclear winter thing going on. The air was really heavy, and the lights all looked really eery (and beautiful) as they shone down through the dust.

So there you have it. The dust storm that didn't hurt anyone, but has left behind a huge mess, and was incredibly interesting.

We should all encourage mum to post a post about an experience she had in a severe dust storm when she was a little girl and her family lived out in the desert - it's a really fascinating story!

xo Tammy

Um, are you sure you work here?

2009-09-20T21:37:00.004+10:00

On Friday night my friend B and I decided to celebrate the end of the week in style: a girls night out with dinner and a movie. There's a plaza with several restaurants where the movie theatre is, and after wandering around for 20 minutes (we had to look carefully at each restaurant before we picked one), we decided on a Mexican place that looked really fun.

I'm all about the ambiance, and this one had oodles of it, and I love Mexican food. B had never had Mexican before, and was using her 'weekly-diet-free-day' on our outing, and her pre-requisite was that she be able to get a steak and mashed potatoes, and since this place was a Mexican grill, it was perfect. We went in, were seated, ordered some drinks, and settled in to look at the menu. There was no Caesar Salad, so it was obviously going to take me a while to decide what to get, but we weren't in any particular hurry, so it was fine. The menu was like a 17 page book, so it was taking a while to get through it all. B had zeroed in on the steak menu, and didn't take long to settle on the T-Bone with Mashed Potatoes and Corn. B absolutely loves corn, and once she saw it on the menu, that's all she wanted. I was tossing up between a couple of more Mexican dishes, and was close to deciding on a chicken Quesidilla.

Then the waitress arrived. She was a really contentious looking girl, with dark hair pulled up in a tidy bun, a fringe (bangs), and dark framed I-use-a-mac-computer type glasses that she pushed up her nose every 30 seconds. She could tell I was still trying to decide (pretty obvious, since I'm turning the pages back and forward and B's saying things like "yeah, just get that one. Or, okay, sure. That one.... Just pick one", more patiently than anyone should have to). So our waitress offered to give us some menu suggestions.

Waitress: Okay, well, let my start by just telling you what not to order. Definitely stay away from the xxxxx because we really don't do a good job with those. And whatever you do, don't order the xxxx - they're disgusting!

Us: Ahh, okay. (Wow, okay, but I'm glad she told us if they're that bad).

Girl: And our xxxx have no taste, at all - whatever you do, stay away from those! And definitely not the xxxx - they're really soggy. And we always overcook the xxxxx here, so just skip past that entire page. And (and here's my favourite one) stay away from anything with seafood in it, because the seafood we serve here is totally (she then made loud gagging noises for 10 whole seconds).

It was at about this point, that I (attempting to hide my delightedly confused smile) actually glanced to my left and my right looking for the hidden camera! Surely this girl was a paid actress for a candid camera stunt. This girl was hilarious! Was she for real?!

Me: Ahh, okay. Well what is good here.

Girl: Okay. I'd totally recommend the Quisidillas. But not the seafood ones because -

Tammy: (cutting her off before the gagging could start again) - yeah, no, not the seafood. I'll get the chicken.

B: And I was going to get the T-Bone with steak with the mashed potato and corn.

The girl hesitated....

B: What's wrong?

Girl: Well. The T-Bone steak is always really, really, really dry. I'd stay away from that one if I was you. Why don't you get the xxxx steak instead.

B: (her smile faltering just a little) uh, well, okay, but I really felt like the corn, and that only comes with the T-Bone.

Girl: No - you don't want the corn - trust me! Our corn is terrible!

B's face fell, and her shoulders slumped, and I lost it! I just started laughing - I couldn't help it! I couldn't even hold it together until after she walked away! It was like she was playing some private game with herself to make sure we didn't order anything. Or maybe the owner of the restaurant once killer her mother and this was her idea of revenge!

But the girl didn't even notice my laughing, because she was still talking:

Girl: - Trust me. Go to Woolies, buy yourself some corn and cook it up at home. It'll be way better than what you get here!

A debate ensued. The girl was pretty set on the xxxx steak, but B was worried that the sauce on the xxxx steak was too spicy (and the girl concurred of course), so they finally fixed on the xxxx steak, but with the T-Bone sauce. And B wouldn't budge on the corn and potatoes. The girl gave a long suffering sigh, pushed her glasses back up her nose again and finally left us.

20 minutes later, we got our food: B's steak was dry, her corn was no good, and the potatoes (which the girl hadn't said anything about) were the worst of the bunch - completely flavourless! (I advised B not to mention it to the waitress though - surely she didn't need another menu item to add to her list of never-order's!)

My dinner was completely and utterly delicious :)

Moral of the story: totally pays to listen to crazy waitresses! Although I'm not entirely sure that I shouldn't mention her to the management before she completely does them out of business...

xo Tammy

Ahhh!

2009-09-16T14:02:00.003+10:00

I'm having one of those days.

You know, the kind that make you fantasise about relaxing on a beach in the Caribbean, or attending the funerals of certain people....

xo Tammy

Fresh faced

2009-09-13T11:20:00.004+10:00

Mum's decided that she'd like to take photos of each of each us today for a project she's working on. And to save her time in photoshop afterwards (mum's an avid photoshoper of photos that need improvement), she's noted that the twins (my 17 year old brothers) could probably used a thorough face scrub to get off any layers of dead skin etc. etc. The solution: Cliniques 7-day scrub cream.

They resisted at first, but they should have known mum would win in the end.

It involved mum herding them around the kitchen with the tube of cream, until she'd managed to dab huge globs of the stuff on their faces. To be fair, she put giant globs of the stuff on her own face too, so that they could see exactly how it should be done.

Four minutes of vigorous face scrubbing then ensued, with all three of them standing shoulder to shoulder in the bathroom. Faces were rinsed, and the boys now look look incredibly fresh faced. But still manly.

And mum looks beautiful as always :)

xo Tammy

What do you think?

2009-09-12T10:23:00.002+10:00

Is the new layout too annoying?!

xo Tammy

Attention Peta

2009-09-11T14:39:00.005+10:00

It's time you started writing a blog.

A few compelling reasons for my suggestion:
1) Everyone else is doing it
2) You've graduated (yay for you!), so it's not as if you need to study in the evenings
3) It doesn't even take very long - they can be really short posts
4) For example, this post is taking me about 3 minutes to write
5) I miss you, and I never have ANY idea what's going on in your life because talking on the phone once a year (as lovely as it always is), just isn't enough.
6) You made my join facebook
7) You're a wonderful, fun and interesting person, and the cyberworld is missing out.
8) I've asked you very nicely (please Peta), and I've dedicated a whole post to you.

Okay. I'm done.
Looking forward to reading about you soon.

xo Tammy

PS. All in favour say 'aye'...

How technically savy am I?!

2009-08-24T10:50:00.002+10:00

Of trips and phones

2009-08-15T13:41:00.003+10:00

At the risk of talking about work on my blog (yet again) things have been very busy lately. Over the last fortnight, I worked 121 hours instead of the standard 80, which basically amounts to a whole extra week, and though it's been 'extra' busy at work lately, this 'extra busy' thing seems to happen an awful lot. I really need to find a way to get some balance back in my life - I seriously can't keep going on like this!

But since I'm not entirely sure how to do that, I guess I'll blog about other things :) I did spend time in Adelaide and Melbourne on work trips over the last fortnight, and though the Adelaide trip was a six day shoot that kept me very busy, I did manage to spend an evening with some of my Adelaide relatives (grandma, aunty Leah and uncle Joel), so that was really lovely. And then I was able to tack a short overnight holiday onto the end of the Melbourne trip, and Abby came down to spend it with me so we could go and see Wicked playing for it's last week in Melbourne, so all up I'm a pretty lucky girl. Abby and I had a great time (I even managed manage to finally clear my mind of work related things about an hour before we had to catch the plane home again!). I was going to write all about our trip on my blog, but Abby put such a great post of it up on her blog that I think I'll just direct you there for a good read. She titled it "Sorry my nose is tilted so high in the air I can't see you properly down there". Like I said - a lot of fun :)

In other news, I now have an iphone (work got it for me, so I can check my emails when I'm not in the office - I've been out shooting almost constantly lately, and it's hard to be so behind on emails when I get back into the office again). Anyway, I've fallen in love with the new phone. I'm sort of convinced that the thing could fly me to the moon and back if I can just find the right application to download :) We had a show holiday on Wednesday, and it was great to finally run a bunch of the errands I've been needing to run for a couple of weeks - went to the bank, got new clinique facestuff since my old stuff had run out (and a new shirt and skirt that just happened to be discounted at Myer), etc. etc., anyway, I also got a really cute pink leather case for the new iphone, so now it looks like it's owned by a six year old girl in pigtails. But I love it :)

Anyway, I'd better run. We've got stake conference this week, and I need to start getting ready. I'm going to try and blog a little more frequently (at least to keep up the pretense that my life is balanced), so hopefully this site won't be such a boring place to visit over the next few months! :)

Have a lovely weekend!
xo Tammy

I've decided....

2009-08-07T09:10:00.001+10:00

I've decided to lose weight.
So I can date.
So I can get married.
So I can get pregnant.
So I can have a kid.
So I can QUIT MY JOB.

:)

xo Tammy

sigh

2009-07-13T18:07:00.002+10:00

One of the girls I work with just called 'Have a good weekend!' out to one of the guys leaving the office.

I had to tell her it was only Monday.

Yep. It's definitely been one of those days :)

xo Tammy

You never know when a couple of crazy producers might be looking for you....

2009-06-18T06:05:00.005+10:00

Last Friday at work I spent almost all day in a casting session. We were auditioning lots and lots of people for a couple of very last minute television commercial for company X, that we then shot on Monday and Tuesday this week. We saw lots of great actors - I was particularly happy about one particular couple who were going to play a certain role during Monday morning's shoot.

Fast forward to Monday. We had a large crew on site (about 2 hours out of Brisbane), and I'm waiting for Mr. Y - the male half of the starring couple - to arrive on set. He was late. I got out the mobile and started calling. He wasn't answering the either of his phones, and when I finally got on to his agent, I found out that he'd been in a car accident! So he wasn't going to be there after all (he was okay, but his car was totaled). It costs a lot of money to shoot, and we had the whole crew there (on the clock) and the female actor, and Brisbane (and the other male characters) was at least 2 hours away...

So my boss and I found ourselves driving through small town Z looking for trendy young guys who might be good at acting. It involved us splitting up, and stalking rows of shops/offices: Open door, stick head in, look from side to side, realize for the umpteenth time that only older-not-so-good-looking-guys work in town Z, close the door again, and move on to the next shop/office.

We met up at the local newspaper office, and asked them about trendy young guys. The giggling receptionist and her friend (over the partition) told us the podiatrist next door was hot, so we went next door. He wasn't there, but his mobile number was on the side of the building. We called him. He assured us that he was indeed hot, but that he was in Brisbane for the day. We asked if he had any hot friends. He told us he did, and gave us a phone number. So we called the hot friend - Mr H. He was down the street from us at the store, so we went to see if he really was as hot as the podiatrist had said. We all said hi, we looked him up and down, asked him to take his sunglasses off so we could see his face, and decided that he was indeed young and trendy enough to be in our ad.

He was very excited. The money was very good, but he only had 1 and a half hours to spare. So we followed him to his house (around the corner), and up into his bedroom so we could look through his wardrobe and help him pick out a couple of outfits that would work well. Then we drove like crazy people to the set, where he then spent the next hour picking up the very pretty actress and twirling her around and around. Mr. H seemed to have a very nice morning. I think his favourite part was the moment when the director yelled out to the actress "Good! now kiss him on the cheek". Turs out Mr. H wasn't too bad at acting at all.

So all that casting, with all of those actors, and we went with the the man off the street!

Mr. H enjoyed his lucky break, and he's now caught the bug. He emailed me yesterday asking if I could recommend a good talent agent for him...

xo Tammy

Random thoughts

2009-06-11T00:36:00.004+10:00

It's 12:36am, and I'm a bit tired. But I scared of falling into 'Tammy who doesn't blog for months' land again, and this is the last thing to do on my list before going to bed tonight. So here it is.

Another post.

Ta-da!

Had stake meetings tonight. I always enjoy them, but they always go for a looooong time. 7pm to 10:45pm tonight... but we got some good stuff done. The priests/laurels ball, the next fireside, a stake dance, and a upcoming YM/YW service project are all on the agenda for the next month.

My mum and sisters all went to an advanced screening of "the Proposal" at the movies tonight. I had invited them all so we could have a girls night, bought the tickets, and made up cute little gift bags for the night. Then I noticed that a few of the constant YW emails I get were making references to tonight's meetings, and a quick check in my diary (you know, the book that I keep now, so that I'll stop double booking myself) pointed out that I had meetings tonight and couldn't actually GO to the movies... Apparently they had fun.

Someone just signed into MSN and my computer made a 'bing' sound so loud I actually jumped! Bing sounds should automatically get softer when it's late at night.

Last night, when I was driving home, there was a full moon, and it was REALLY yellow. I loved it. It was other-worldly looking. The kind of moon that makes you wonder if maybe magic isn't going on somewhere in the world... Fairies, goblins, wizards. Basically, yellow moons make me think of Enid Blyton books.

And speaking of moons makes me think of the song 'Blue Moon' which makes me think of you Emily. There are few things more entertaining then 26 consecutive key changes.

Myer has a stock take sale on the moment. It's wonderful! (If you read mum's blog you'll notice all the toys she got there last week). I went shopping on Saturday, and bought some really nice winter stuff. I also bought a really nice new pair of shoes. I wore them to work yesterday, and they killed my feet all day. I didn't care though, because my feet looked so good. This is something I suspect members of the opposite sex will never really understand.

Okay. I'd better go to bed. I've put my mobile phone (aka my alarm clock) up on a high shelf in my room, because I'm pretty sure it's going to be a battle between the 'Tammy who remembers that she has to get into work early tomorrow' part of me, and the 'Tammy who'll kill anyone standing between her and the snooze button' part of me.

May the best girl win.

xo Tammy

PS. I make more sense in the mornings than I do late at night. I've really never been a night person. I'm a morning person. Accept for those times when I have trouble getting out of bed. Which was pretty much the entire 5 years that I lived in the US, so I realize that this whole 'Morning Person' thing may come as a shock to some of you...

PPS. I'm really tired.